Poe warns fuel stations vs. profiteering with new tax hike

FILE: Sen. Grace Poe (Photo: Senate of the Philippines/Facebook)

MANILA — Senator Grace Poe on Thursday urged fuel retail outlets to comply with the law in implementing the second round of excise taxes on petroleum products under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.

“Huwag nilang samantalahin ito upang magpataw ng dagdag presyo na higit pa sa itinakda ng batas (They should not take advantage of this to impose additional prices higher than what is required by the law),” Poe said in a statement.

“Maawa naman sila lalo na sa mahihirap nating kababayan na siguradong aaray na naman sa taas-presyong ito (They should be considerate to the poor who would bear the brunt of this price hike),” she added.

Poe also vowed to continue monitoring the implementation of the TRAIN law.

During the first year of implementation of TRAIN law, the government imposed PHP1-per-kilogram excise tax on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), PHP2.50 per liter for diesel, and PHP7 per liter for gasoline.

For the second tranche of the increase, an additional PHP2-per-liter will be slapped on diesel and gasoline products, PHP1 per liter for kerosene, and PHP1 per kilogram on LPG.

Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Alfonso Cusi, in a separate statement, said the department continues to monitor retail outlets in the implementation of the second wave of the fuel excise tax to ensure that consumers “do not become subjects of profiteering”.

“We are issuing Show-Cause Orders to the concerned retail outlets for them to explain their implementation of the second tranche of excise taxes. In addition, we are also validating the prices of their fuel products whether they have already imposed the second wave of excise taxes,” Cusi said.

To date, the DOE has already received 444 reports on those retail stations implementing the second tranche of fuel excise tax.

Of the 444 retail stations, there are 369 outlets from Petron Corp., 46 from Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., and 29 from Flying V.