Leading oil firm Petron Corporation has been ranked consistent topnotcher in the country’s fuel marking program that is being enforced by the Bureau of Customs (BoC) to potently curb smuggling in the downstream oil sector.

As reported by the Customs bureau, Petron rated highest in the fuel marking initiative of the State having logged 17.83 billion liters of fuel marked from September 2019 until October this year.

In line with that performance, the BoC bestowed an award on Petron as a ‘leading contributor’ to the government-underpinned fuel marking program; and that was recently received by the company’s officials led by Petron Senior Vice President and Chief Risk Officer Freddie Yumang and Assistant Vice President for Corporate Affairs Mia Delos Reyes.

Smuggling has always been a major industry headache, not just for the government due to foregone tax collections, but also for the oil companies because such illegal acts distort the ingenuity of competitive forces in the sector.

Given that dilemma, the government had decided on a having a compelling policy that could then keep a tight rein on fuel products being shipped into the country – and that was instituted via the fuel marking program.

Leading the charge on that policy enforcement has been the BOC, along with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) then SGS Philippines, which has been designated as the entity in-charge of ‘marking’ the petroleum products – including the finished products being drawn from Petron’s refinery in Limay, Bataan.

The Petron facility, which is now the sole refinery operating in the Philippines with a run of 180,000 barrels per stream day, supplies around 40-percent of the country’s fuel requirements.

Since the fuel marking program was implemented roughly four years ago,  it has been emphasized that the State coffers had been constantly shored up with increased revenue collections.

Nevertheless, industry players as well as government authorities are indicating that further initiatives are still warranted to totally fight off smuggling activities in the domestic oil industry.

While consumers can technically benefit from cheaper oil prices sourced from smuggled products, what’s being compromised are safety and quality of these commodities; as well as tax collections of the government, which could have been funneled to social services and infrastructure development for the country.