The government has already collected at least P185 billion in duties and taxes from the fuel-marking program, the Department of Finance (DOF) said on Friday.

Data released by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd on Friday showed that the actual P185.14-billion tax take was collected from Sept. 4, 2019 to Jan. 31, 2021, and was from 19.06 billion liters of marked fuel products.

Breaking it down, P159.18 billion was collected by the Bureau of Customs from September 2019 to end-January this year, while P25.96 billion was generated by the Bureau of Internal Revenue from December 2019 to January 31 this year.

Of the total marked fuel products, 61.26 percent was from diesel, 38.21 percent from gasoline and 0.53 percent from kerosene.

By location, majority, or 74.02 percent, of the marked fuel products came from Luzon; 20.92 percent from Mindanao; and 5.06 percent from the Visayas.

Participating companies in the fuel-marking program were Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Unioil Petroleum Philippines Inc., Seaoil Philippines Inc., Chevron Philippines Inc., Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc., Insular Oil Corp., Filoil Energy Co. Inc., Jetti Petroleum Inc., Total and Filoil Energy Co., Marubeni Philippines Corp., PTT Philippines Corp., Micro Dragon Petroleum Inc., Warbucks Industries Inc., Era1 Petroleum Corp., High Glory Subic International Logistics Inc., SL Harbor Bulk Terminal Corp., Jadelink Subic Inc., SL Gas, Power Fill, and Petrotrade.

The fuel-marking program is mandated under Republic Act (RA) 10963, or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act, to curb oil smuggling and misdeclaration of petroleum products in the country, and increase revenue collection from taxable imported and locally refined fuel products.

According to the DoF, smuggling of oil products

was estimated to have cost the government P27 billion to P44 billion in uncollected revenues.