The Department of Energy (DOE), through its Oil Industry Management Bureau (OIMB), is keeping a close eye on the implementation of the third and final tranche of excise taxes on petroleum products under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law.
The agency said as of January 24, 48 of 67 liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) depots and 40 of 116 liquid fuel depots have imposed the additional excise taxes as their end-2019 inventories were already depleted.
For LPG refilling plants, 4 of 297 have put in place the additional excise taxes starting January 10, 2020.
To date, Shell, PTT, Chevron, Petrogazz, Seaoil and Total, with over 900 liquid fuels retail outlets, have informed the DOE that they have imposed the additional excise taxes. This accounts to over 10 percent of the 9,003 retail outlets nationwide.
“On top of our regular monitoring of companies’ compliance to national quantity and quality standards, the DOE-OIMB has been conducting verification inspections to make sure that that depots and terminals are complying with the provisions of the TRAIN Law. In particular, stocks that are part of their 31 December 2019 inventories are not to be subjected to additional excise taxes,” Alfonso Cusi, DOE secretary, said in a statement.
“Liquid fuel retail outlets, or what we commonly call as gasoline stations, are also expected to follow the same, and are required to display a tarpaulin indicating which of their products have been additionally taxed, and the date of implementation,” Cusi added.
Under the third and last tranche of fuel excise tax, both gasoline and kerosene will have additional P1.12 per liter cost while diesel will have an added cost of P1.68.
All in all, the three tranches of increased fuel excise tax led to additional costs of P6.33 per liter for gasoline, P6.72 per liter for diesel and P5.60 per liter for kerosene.
