MANILA – – Officials of the Department of Finance (DOF) expect to gain at least PHP18 billion from the planned implementation of fuel marking by early 2019.
Finance Assistant Secretary Mark Dennis Joven said the fuel marking’s project cost is around PHP2 billion but studies show that potential leakage is around PHP25 to PHP40 billion annually.
“We are targeting around 10 times the total project cost,” he said.
Joven said bidding for the marker is expected to be done within the year.
Aside from the fuel markers, Joven said they could also put dowsing equipment in the various refineries to check whether the oil companies are paying correct taxes.
He said the marker that would be used to check the dilution of the oil is a molecular marker and is different from the dye being used to determine if the oil is fake.
“Supposedly it is mixed with the oil and using an equipment you will see how diluted the oil is so that we can determine how many companies are not paying correct taxes,” he added.
Finance Undersecretary Antonette Tionko said a technical working group (TWG) is currently discussing with various sectors on how to best implement fuel marking.
She said members of the TWG have visited the refineries of Shell, Chevron and Petron.
She said TWG members need to determine where and at what point in the refinery should the marker be placed to check, among others, the costing.
She added that the government will initially shoulder the cost of marking as what was done in the past.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said what the government wants is to capture the leakages.
“Certainly we want to get more than PHP2 billion,” he added. (Joann Villanueva/PNA)
