The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has marked nine billion liters of fuel, equivalent to P118 billion in duties and taxes for the first semester of 2022, the agency said in a statement over the weekend.
With this, the total marked gasoline, diesel and kerosene from September 2019, or when the fuel marking program started, to June 2022 were 43.65 billion liters equivalent to P432.3 billion in duties and taxes.
Diesel comprises 60.59 percent of the total volume marked, followed by gasoline with 38.9 percent and kerosene with 0.51 percent of marked volume.
As to location, nearly three-fourths of the marking was in Luzon, 20.66 percent in Mindanao and 5.47 percent in the Visayas.
Also aligned with the program, the BOC and the Bureau of Internal Revenue seized a total of 111,157.80 liters of diesel, 3,311 liters of kerosene, 18,839 liters of gasoline as well as two units of tank trucks carrying unmarked fuel with a total estimated value of P14.4 million.
Tanks of 16 retail stations and four private companies where BOC found these unmarked fuels were likewise sealed and recommended for filing of criminal cases.
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. – Angela Celis
