The Department of Finance (DOF) has announced that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) will still implement the government’s fuel marking system despite the community-wide travel bans.
DOF Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said the anti-fuel smuggling measure will not be included in the travel restrictions while Metro Manila and other localities are under community quarantine, according to a report.
Dominguez added that the bureau will issue an exemption on the movement of the fuel marker handlers and is asking the Philippine Coast Guard for assistance in transporting the equipment.
“We can also continue marking with teams already on the ground in various areas, with fuel being exempt from movement restrictions, we would like to continue fuel marking,” Dominguez was quoted in a report.
Dominguez said that the uninterrupted implementation is needed to ensure that the compliance of oil companies are properly monitored, as well as ensuring importers abide by the country’s tax laws.
The fuel marking program is implemented under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law in hopes to avoid oil smuggling and misdeclaration of petroleum products in the country.
The program also aims to increase revenue collection from taxable imported and locally refined petroleum products.
Based on the BOC’s data, the agency already marked 2.368 billion liters while the team from the Bureau of Internal Revenue has marked 913 million liters, which bring a sum of 3.28 billion liters as of February 14
Unioil, Chevron, Phoenix Petroleum, Seaoil, Shell, Insular Oil, Filoil Energy, PTT Philippines, Petron, Warbucks Petroleum, and Microdragon Petroleum (Subic) participated in the fuel marking program.
