Fully automated fuel marking system up by January

Regulating the entry of oil or petroleum products for now is such a tedious manual process. Yummie Dingding

The automatic injection of so-called markers in the various oil products should have been completed in full by January 2020, the Department of Finance (DoF)said on Thursday.

Right now, the DoF acknowledged, marking the various oil products for purposes of collecting the excise tax and ensuring the government gets its share of the obligation, is done manually.

This was learned from Finance Undersecretary Antonette Tionko who said regulating the entry of oil or petroleum products for now is such a tedious manual process but that with the collaboration of the big oil refiners, the fuel marking program should go full-scale by January next year.

“Tests have already been finished. The team is in the process of working with the big refineries for the installation of the automatic injection of the marker,” Tionko said Thursday at the Senate hearing on the DoF’s proposed budget.

“Our plan is for the complete implementation by January (2020) but we’re already…(doing) the testing,” she said.

According to her, fuel marking is currently achieved manually and with the use of refinery equipment.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III previousl estimated that some P5 billion worth of revenues may be generated from the fuel marking initiative in the final six months this year.

Next year when the process shifts from manual to automated, Tionko said at least P20 billion may be collected as oil excise tax.