THE GOVERNMENT has collected P210.63 billion from marked fuel since the marking program was launched in 2019, according to the Department of Finance (DoF).
On Monday, the DoF said that the Bureau of Customs generated P182.926 billion worth of duties and taxes between September 2019 and March 25, 2021 from marked fuel, which is injected with a dye to indicate that duties have been paid.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue collected P27.7 billion in excise taxes between December 2019 and March 18, 2021.
To date, the two agencies have processed a total of 21.59 billion liters of fuel as of March 26, or around 56% or 12.05 billion liters of the fuel in circulation.
Fuel marked in Luzon accounted for 73.84% or 15.94 billion liters. Volumes in the Visayas and Mindanao were 5.19% or 1.12 million liters, and 20.97% or 4.53 million liters, respectively.
Diesel accounted for 60.67% or 13.1 billion liters, followed by gasoline with 38.79% or 8.38 billion liters, and kerosene which took up 0.54% or 116.1 million liters.
The DoF said Petron Corp. accounted for 22.32% or 4.82 billion liters of marked fuel, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. 19.91% or 4.30 billion liters, and Unioil Petroleum Philippines, Inc. 10.42% or 2.25 billion liters.
The fuel marking program is authorized by the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act as a measure to prevent the smuggling of petroleum products.
The DoF said that fuel is marked after taxes are paid on refined and imported gasoline, diesel, and kerosene, to signify that the product is tax compliant. Absence of the dye is deemed prima facie evidence of smuggling.
Since September, the government has been collecting fuel marking fees of P0.06884 per liter from oil firms. This will go on until the fifth year of the program’s implementation, the DoF said. — Angelica Y. Yang
