By Myrna Velasco
Even without the effect of higher excise taxes yet, prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and fuel products are expected to increase before 2019 ends and at the start of the new year.
(MARK BALMORES / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO
Consumers will have to brace for the significant hike in their cooking fuel LPG of P7 to P8 per kilogram on January 1.
Based on advisories by some oil companies, the anticipated increase in LPG prices will be P77 to P88 for the standard 11-kilogram cylinder used by households for cooking.
LPG prices are anticipated to climb on January 1, or a day after the prices of petroleum products are expected to also go up.
For gasoline prices, it will shoot up by P0.85 per liter on December 31 at 6 a.m., while diesel will be higher by P0.50 per liter; and P0.35 per liter for kerosene products.
As of press time, the oil companies that have already sent notices on price hikes were Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation, Cleanfuel and PetroGazz; while the rest of the industry players are anticipated to follow suit.
The past weeks leading to the Christmas and New Year holiday celebrations have exhibited upswings in pump prices – which have been inconveniently timed because this was also the month when most Filipinos go on their highest level of spending.
From a leaner $62 to $63 per barrel in the first two weeks of December, the Asian market benchmark Dubai crude inched up to more than US$65 per barrel in last week’s trading – clearly manifesting then that price increases will take their brunt on consumers’ pockets.
Others in the crude basket also climbed higher, primarily international benchmark Brent crude which reached a high of $67 per barrel last week; while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for the US market had been at $61 per barrel level.
For Filipino consumers, this will not be the last increase that they will have to put up with this January – as higher excise taxes are also highly anticipated once the old inventories of the oil companies are consumed.
Several oil companies just have inventories of 15 days and that entails an additional round of P1.12 per liter increase in gasoline products starting mid-January, P1.68 per liter hike in diesel prices, and P1.12 per liter for kerosene products.
Petroleum products in the Philippines are generally perceived as highly taxed – because aside from the three-tranche increase in excise taxes, such commodities are also similarly slapped with 12.0-percent value added taxes.