Oil Smuggling

Fuel smuggling costing gov't P9.5B a year Michelle V. RemoInquirer News Service
THE Department of Finance and the Bureau of Customs have estimated that the government has been losing about P9.5 billion in revenues a year due to fuel smuggling, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said.
Of the amount, P7 billion are in the form of lost excise taxes and P2.5 billion in uncollected import duties, Teves said.
"While the Bureau of Customs has apprehended suspected fuel smugglers, the lack of incontrovertible evidence has made it difficult for them to confiscate the products or prosecute the offenders," he said.
Caltex Philippines Inc., at a recent forum on the VAT Reform Law, earlier raised its concern over the growing number of fuel smugglers, which it said were directly competing with their legitimate oil dealers.
The finance department and the customs bureau have come up with a strategy that would help detect whether fuel sold in the market was smuggled, Teves said.
They have signed a memorandum of agreement with the Philippine Institute of Petroleum (PIP), a private sector organization, that will help the government implement a chemical technology in detecting smuggled fuel, he said.
With the chemical technology, authorities will use a certain chemical to mark fuel whose taxes and duties have been paid by the importers.
Under the government's anti-smuggling plan, customs authorities would regularly check the market to monitor sale of fuel. When a fuel does not contain the chemical markings, then they would have reason to suspect that the product was smuggled, the Department of Finance said in the statement.
Aside from addressing fuel smuggling, Customs Commissioner Alexander Arevalo earlier said the bureau had also tapped the assistance of courier service companies FedEx, UPS and DHL to help combat smuggling of other products.
The three companies will serve as third-party informants to help the Bureau of Customs detect smuggled items, Arevalo said. In particular, the couriers, from point of departure, will inform the bureau of the contents of the products they will deliver to the Philippines, he said. With INQ7.net