About one in every three liters of gasoline or diesel
sold in the country is smuggled, resulting in 30 billion pesos to 40 billion
pesos (US$733 million to $977 million) in yearly forgone revenue on the part of
the government, according to the head of the country’s biggest oil refiner.
The
forgone revenue estimate is bigger than what the government expects to generate
this year from higher taxes on sin products.
Ramon S.
Ang, Petron Corp. chairman and chief executive officer, said studies from 2007
to 2011 showed that smuggled oil products “now account for at least a third of
the total volume sold in the market.”
“(Our)
retail or service station volumes have remained flat despite the fact that
registered vehicles increased from 5.5 million to 7.1 million over the period,”
Ang said in a phone interview.
“On top of
lost government revenue and an uncertain investment climate in the oil
industry, smugglers are cheating consumers since these products are of
uncertain quality,” he said.
Ang said
the uncontrolled oil smuggling in the country “is tax evasion in another form.”
Based on
official data, the Philippines consumed a total of 110 million barrels of oil
in 2012, of which 50 per cent were imported as finished products.
The rest
were refined in the country by Petron and Pilipinas Shell. Other companies import
finished petroleum products like gasoline and diesel mostly from Singapore.
36m barrels smuggled
Besides
the official fuel imports, an estimated 36 million barrels were smuggled into
the country, Ang said.
Petron is
majority-owned by San Miguel Corp., which is still licking its wounds from last
year’s defeat in Congress where allies of President Aquino approved higher
taxes on sin products for the first time in more than a decade.
Petron,
which accounts for an industry-leading 34.9-per-cent share of the domestic
market in the first half of 2012, saw its profit plunge 73 per cent to 2.3
billion pesos last year from 8.5 billion pesos in 2011.
The huge
drop in Petron’s profit came despite a 55-per-cent jump in revenue to 424.8
billion pesos in 2012.
The
company attributed the fall in margins to volatility in crude and product
prices last year. Its expanded Bataan refinery, which cost $2 billion, is
expected to start operations next year.
Watch special zones
For Ang,
stopping oil smuggling is not “rocket science”.
“It
doesn’t take much to stop these smuggling activities since you would only need
to closely monitor special economic zones and other ports. I believe another
way the government can monitor smuggling activities is to go after retail outlets
that are selling fuel at extremely low prices,” he said.
Fernando
Martinez, chairman of the Independent Philippine Petroleum Companies (IPPC),
said his group shared Ang’s concerns on the rampant oil smuggling.
“We have
made presentations to both the Department of Finance and the BOC (Bureau of
Customs) about the problem. We have made proposals on how to check it
especially in ecozones—charge all imports upon entry and just give rebates to
those who use the fuel within the zone,” said Martinez in a phone interview.
Don’t generalise
But
Martinez, president of Eastern Petroleum, said that Ang should not generalize
that retailers selling fuel at way below market prices was an indication that
they were selling smuggled fuel.
Martinez
said there could be valid reasons for a retailer to sell at below-market
prices.
“What if
the retailer is deliberately selling at a loss just to buy market share or meet
a sales quota?” Martinez asked.
“He (Ang)
cannot generalise, we are law-abiding as anyone. If he has evidence, he can sue
them. Also, even a big player like Shell is facing charges of smuggling,”
Martinez said.
Since the
industry deregulation 16 years ago, small oil companies belonging to the IPPC
have boosted their market share to 25 per cent, he said.
Last year,
the government imposed taxes on fuel products entering the country through free
ports and economic zones to help curb oil smuggling.
VAT, excise tax
The Bureau
of Internal Revenue (BIR) issued in February last year a regulation that
said “the value-added and excise taxes
which are due on all petroleum and petroleum products that are imported and/or
brought directly from abroad to the Philippines, including the free port and
economic zones, shall be paid by the importer thereof to the Bureau of
Customs”.
An
importer can claim credit or a refund from the customs bureau of the VAT paid
on account of registered enterprises with tax privileges within a free port or
economic zone. The importer can also get a refund of the excise tax paid on
account of sales to international carriers of Philippine or foreign registry if
the fuel was used outside the country under certain conditions, according to
Revenue Regulation No. 2-2012.
The BIR
issued the regulation because of findings that crude oil was being smuggled out
of the free ports and economic zones.
Petroleum
products imported through the free ports are exempt from the value-added tax
and excise taxes provided that these are used inside the special economic
zones. However, some of the fuel products found their way out of the zones and
into the general market.
Finance
Secretary Cesar Purisima told the Management Association of the Philippines in
January last year that less than 10 per cent of the fuel brought into the Subic
Freeport in Zambales was consumed on the premises.
“A very
small portion of the [imported] oil is consumed by legally exempt entities,”
Purisima said. “In Subic, my understanding is it’s about 5 per cent.
Definitely, less than 10 per cent is consumed within Subic.”
He said
the rest was shipped out. “If it’s shipped out, then it’s subject to taxes.”
Rampant
Customs
Commissioner Rufino Biazon acknowledged that oil smuggling had remained rampant
in the first three years of the Aquino administration’s “daang matuwid”
(straight path).
“This
problem is one that has been going on way before I came to this office. The
problem is that the system is one that’s been in place for so long and many
benefit from the status quo. Resistance to reform is quite strong and anyone
embarking on a reform program is sure to face difficulties,” Biazon said.
He said he
and Purisima had agreed to tighten the monitoring of oil imports into the
country, especially the ports under the BOC’s direct jurisdiction.
“We’re
doing a tour of these ports to gather information and impress upon our
personnel the importance of stopping the smuggling of petroleum. We’re setting
up an information-gathering system for analyzing the movement of petroleum
through those ports. Under consideration is the issuance of a rule limiting the
entry of petroleum only in specific ports,” Biazon said.
He
explained that economic zones were a different matter because the “BOC does not
have principal authority” over them.
Fuel marking
“We see
such ecozones as potential loopholes for smuggling. We endeavor to coordinate
with the concerned authorities in economic zones to plug these loopholes. One
method is the fuel-marking program, which has seen retailers caught selling
marked fuel. It’s a private sector-public sector program,” Biazon said.
Despite
the long odds of beating the oil smugglers, Biazon remained optimistic. “There
is always hope. There is nothing I’d like more than to be the one to reform the
BOC. It will surely be an achievement of a lifetime. But from what I’ve
experienced, there’s nothing that those who benefit from the current
‘kalakaran’ (arrangement) would do to stop any change in the system,” he
said.—With a report from Inquirer Research
Gil
Cabacungan
Philippine
Daily Inquirer
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