The Bureaus of Customs (BOC) and of Internal Revenue (BIR) witnessed the marking of a total of 4.88 billion liters of taxable fuel as of February 28, 2020 since the government’s first nationwide implementation of a Fuel Marking Program on August 2, 2019.
Fuel marking is mandated under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act (TRAIN) as a measure against smuggling of petroleum products.
Fuel marking is done after the taxes are paid on refined and imported gasoline, diesel and kerosene. To date, all import terminals and refineries of various oil companies nationwide comply with the marking requirement of the program, according to a report by the BOC to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III.
BOC data show that of the country’s consumption of imported fuel last year, gasoline accounted for 30.09 percent and diesel, 50.72 percent.
Of the locally refined petroleum in 2019, the BIR said gasoline accounted for 33.03 percent and diesel, 50.4 percent.
After all taxable fuel are injected with the official marker, the BOC and the BIR will begin random field testing to determine if the fuel being stored, transported or sold in the retail market are marked, which means that taxes have been paid on these products.
According to a report presented by the Department of Finance (DOF) during a recent meeting of the Cabinet’s Economic Development Cluster (EDC), 20 mobile analyzers will be deployed across the country to facilitate the random field testing on stored and transported fuel and those sold in 11,464 gas stations nationwide.
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