The government has marked more than two billion liters of fuel under the fuel marking scheme, the Department of Finance (DOF) said, as part of efforts to plug tax leakages from oil smuggling and other fuel fraud.
Carlos Dominguez, DOF secretary, shared with reporters in a Viber message over the weekend the most recent update on the fuel marking activities.
Dominguez said according to the Bureau of Customs (BOC), as of January 18, 2.05 billion liters of fuel have already been marked.
The BOC said participating companies include Unioil, Chevron, Phoenix Petroleum, Seaoil, Shell, Insular Oil, Filoil Energy, PTT and Petron.
Marking activities were also held over the weekend in PTT Subic and in the Ecology Specialist Badoc Ilocos (January 18), as well as in Petron SL Gas Limay (January 18 and 19).
The BOC said more marking activities are scheduled this week, covering Unioil Pinamucan Batangas (January 20 and 21) and Seaoil Vispet Leyte (January 23 to 25).
The fuel marking activity started in October last year.
By February 3, 2020, testing of fuel in the retail side as well as enforcement actions will commence. Gasoline, diesel and kerosene found to be unmarked will be seized, and penalties will be imposed against those storing, transporting, importing or peddling unmarked fuel.
Early last year, the government said it plans to “mark” more than 15 billion liters of fuel.
The fuel marking program is mandated under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law to curb oil smuggling and misdeclaration of petroleum products in the country, and increase revenue collection from taxable imported and locally refined petroleum products.
The program uses an official fuel marker, a unique chemical marker detectable at a molecular level, allowing for authorities to test, identify and distinguish petroleum products with paid excise taxes in the market from those without.
After a three-month “flush-out period” within which all downstream fuels are expected to have been marked, random field testing shall be conducted by BOC, Bureau of Internal Revenue and the fuel marking provider on depots, tank trucks and retail stations to determine the presence and/or dilution level of the fuel marker on petroleum products subject to marking.
Fuels found to be unmarked or with marker levels below the prescribed dilution level shall be immediately subjected to confirmatory testing in an accredited testing facility of the fuel marking provider.
The fuel marking program is expected to plug an estimated P27 billion to P44 billion annual revenue losses.
