DUTIES AND TAXES collected from marked fuel products amounted to P218.1 billion as of April 15, counting back from the launch of the fuel marking program in 2019, the Department of Finance (DoF) said.
The volume of taxed fuel was 22.4 billion liters, over the Sept. 4, 2019 to April 15 period, the DoF said.
The fuel marking program has yielded P190.18 billion in Customs duties and P27.87 billion in tax collections since its launch.
Marked diesel products accounted for 60.7% or 13.6 billion liters of the total, followed by gasoline with a 38.7% share and kerosene at less than one percent.
Some 74% of the fuel marked by volume was in Luzon, 21% in Mindanao and the rest in the Visayas.
The program deters fuel smuggling by injecting the products with a special dye to signify tax compliance. The absence of the dye is deemed prima facie evidence that the fuel was smuggled.
The government started collecting in September 2020 a fuel marking fee of P0.06884 per liter, inclusive of value-added tax, on all manufactured, refined or imported petroleum products.
The fee was imposed after the one-year program for subsidized fees ended. Oil companies will now have to shoulder the costs over the next four years.
The DoF has estimated that revenue foregone due to oil smuggling was between P20 billion and P40 billion a year. — Beatrice M. Laforga