Given continued upticks in global oil prices, Filipino consumers will need to shell out higher budget for their fuel consumption this week as the price of diesel will rise by P1.90 per liter; while gasoline prices will go up by P1.45 per liter.

The oil companies similarly sent pricing advisory notices to the media that the cost of kerosene products at the domestic pumps will increase by P1.70 per liter.

As of this writing, the industry players that already announced price hikes effective Tuesday (January 25), include Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation, Cleanfuel, PetroGazz, Seaoil, Chevron and PTT Philippines; while the other companies are expected to match this week’s price upswings implemented by their competitors.

The weekly movement in prices at the domestic pumps are reckoned on the Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS) indices, which is the reference pricing adopted by the players in the country’s deregulated downstream oil industry.

This is already the fourth series of hefty oil price hikes this January; and there are no signs yet that this will ease off in the weeks ahead - with continued apprehension over thinning spare capacity of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its ally-producers (OPEC +) that they could still inject into markets.

In line with the incessant climb in petroleum prices, House Deputy Minority Leader Carlos Isagani Zarate has renewed his call on the leadership of Congress “to fast track the passage of House Bill 10386 or the Unbundling of Fuel Prices Bill, to make the pricing scheme transparent.”

He expounded that “the unbundling bill should go hand-in-hand with the pending consolidated bill suspending the excise tax on oil products for six months.”

By segregating the components for fuel prices being passed on at the pumps, Zarate noted that the consumers can be properly apprised of what they have been paying for when they fill up their vehicles at gasoline stations – and that will also come with assurance that the oil companies have not been resorting to over-pricing tactics in their weekly cost adjustments.

“The big-time oil price hike again brings to the fore the issue of possible overpricing by the oil companies. This shows the need to unbundle or detail their price of fuel per liter,” the lawmaker stressed.

Zarate emphasized that in the overall costs pass-on being done weekly at the pumps, the only known factors to the consumers are the international costs of fuel commodities as well as the foreign exchange rate component.

“Nobody knows the actual expenses of oil companies in selling fuel, such as refining cost, storage, transportation, salaries and advertising cost,” the solon pointed out; adding that “the oil companies must inform the DOE (Department of Energy) and the public of these actual costs, so that we will know if they are over-pricing or not.”