Roxas urges DOE to review oil firms' books

MANILA, Philippines - Senator Mar Roxas, chairman of the Senate trade and commerce committee, on Thursday urged the Department of Energy to examine the financial books of the country’s oil players to determine if more rollbacks on the prices of diesel, gasoline and other petroleum products could be implemented. Roxas said the P5 per liter reduction for diesel products and the P2 per liter reduction for gasoline and kerosene products are not enough, especially following huge drops in world oil prices, which has gone down to below $70 a barrel in Dubai. “Tingnan natin kung maaari pang ibaba ng mga oil companies ang presyo ng kanilang mga produkto. Malaki ang ibinagsak ng halaga ng langis sa international market. Hanggang dito lang ba ang rollback na kaya ng mga oil companies natin? (Let’s see if more price cuts could be implemented. The prices of oil in the world market have dropped tremendously. Is this the most that they could reduce their prices?)" he asked. The lawmaker said a review of the financial books of the “Big Three" oil companies – Shell, Petron and Caltex – would help the DoE determine if there could be more price cuts. Roxas also reiterated his call for the removal of the 12% value-added tax imposed on petroleum in light of the global financial meltdown. He insisted that removing the VAT on oil would provide much-needed relief for Filipinos who are still reeling from the record-high prices in the international and domestic oil markets. - GMANews.TV