By Myrna M. Velasco
The combined impact of higher petroleum excise taxes and rising crude prices in the first three months this year had dragged the consolidated net income of Petron Corporation to P1.3 billion in the first quarter from a comparatively rosy financial outcome of P5.8 billion in the same period last year.
In fact, in the earnings in the initial three months, around P1.2 billion is attributable to the oil firm’s operations in the Malaysian market.
For the company’s operating income, the oil firm noted that such had also been down by 45-percent to P4.9 billion.
On the revenue side, Petron just posted a slight decline of 4.0-percent to P124.6 billion from January to March this year; and this was primarily traced to the reduction in its sales volume.
“This was mainly due to a 5.0-percent decline in volume for the Philippine operations following the implementation of the TRAIN Law, “ the company stressed, referring to the second tranche of the excise taxes of oil commodities under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act of the Duterte administration.
Petron explained that “by now, a total of around P4.50 per liter in excise tax plus VAT (value added tax) are carried by fuel prices.”
It further qualified that on a quarterly basis, such increase is being translated to around P8.0 billion in excise taxes and P1.0 billion in VAT charges.
It indicated that the implementation of the second phase of the tax law “created price advantage for importers since refiners maintain higher inventory in crude form, which is immediately taxed upon production.”