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RP extends anti-oil smuggling program that involves marking fuel shipments


MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines’ Finance Department extended an anti-smuggling pilot program that involves marking imported kerosene and diesel shipments arriving at the ports of Subic, Clark, Batangas, and Bataan. The three-month extension will give the government more time in collecting data that would be useful in determining whether the initiative would increase oil prices or cause inconvenience to oil companies. It will also permit authorities to enhance its anti-petroleum smuggling activities that cost the government some P9.5 billion in yearly revenues. Undertaken by Swiss company Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS), the fuel marking scheme’s pilot testing will be undertaken for another three months at the four said locations starting May 31. The extension order was issued and approved by Finance Secretary Margarito B. Teves who approved the pilot implementation of fuel marking that began last February 21 and will expire on May 31, as indicated by Department Order 12-09. In an earlier separate order, Teves also instructed the pilot testing scheme for Subic and Clark starting December 2 and Batangas beginning January 29. During this said period, some 660 withdrawals involving 31.8 million liters of fuel products were marked by SGS. Next: Anti-oil-smuggling scheme expanded to cover Bataan Anti-oil-smuggling scheme expanded to cover Bataan The pilot testing’s program extension was recommended by Finance Undersecretary Estella Sales, who also heads the department’s project implementation office. The same body also sought expanding the program’s coverage to the ports of Limay and Mariveles in Bataan. Fees paid by users cost P0.13 per liter, amounting only to 0.4 percent of retail diesel pump prices for December, Sales said. “For one, the pilot run has already demonstrated that fuel marking can be undertaken with hardly adverse effect on the industry supply chains. For another, the cost of marking was proven to be very minimal as to affect the pump price of the marked diesel and kerosene," the official said. The Philippines’ big three oil companies – Petron, Pilipinas Shell, and Chevron which account for 85 percent of the market – has expressed support for the program to cut petroleum smuggling. Smaller oil companies which account for the remaining 15 percent of the market course their shipments through the ports of Limay and Mariveles in Bataan. The fuel marking scheme has already netted three stations that were caught selling tax-exempt diesel fuel, according to the Bureau of Customs which has conducted 171 tests on fuel samples. An estimated P7 billion in excise tax payments and P2.5 billion in import duties are lost every year due to oil smuggling. - GMANews.TV
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