Petron expects to surpass pre-pandemic levels ‘soon’

Petron Corp. on Tuesday said it expects to surpass pre-pandemic levels “soon,” after it saw its net income surge by over 100% in the first three months of the year.

According to president and chief executive officer Ramon Ang, the company has reported an improvement so far following the COVID-19 pandemic, and this is expected to continue moving forward.

“I would like to believe that we have done much, much better now but of course, we are still recovering to reach the pre-pandemic level, but we are very confident that we will soon have a better outcome than pre-pandemic,” he said during the firm’s annual stockholders’ meeting on Tuesday.

Petron reported a P3.6-billion net income in the first three months of the year, up from P1.73 billion recorded in the previous year. Revenues soared to P172.33 billion from P83.31 billion.

Domestic pump prices have have been on an uptrend for most of the year so far, with rollbacks implemented only six times.

Latest data available from the Department of Energy show that year-to-date adjustments stand at a net increase of P22 per liter for gasoline, P34.50 per liter for diesel, and P29.75 per liter for kerosene.

“The reason for higher prices of fuel is because of the international market force [brought] about by the Ukraine war and shortage of crude oil,” Ang said.

“With regards to subsidy, I think government have given out a few billion pesos of subsidy to the public transport so I guess government at this point cannot wait [for] its excise tax being requested by the public transport,” he continued.

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) in March said it released some P703 million, covering a total of 108,164 beneficiaries who received P6,500 per unit in line with the Pantawid Pasada Program.

The government has allocated an initial P2.5 billion to provide vouchers for some 377,000 qualified public utility vehicle drivers across the country.

There have been several proposals in Congress to suspend the excise taxes on fuel, which the Department of Finance (DOF) has continued to buck due to the foregone revenues the measure will cause.

Petron Corp.’s principal business involves the refining of crude oil, and the marketing and distribution of refined petroleum products including gasoline, naphtha, LPG, diesel, jet fuel, kerosene, and petrochemicals.

Shares in Petron were up by 1 centavo or 0.31% at P3.28 as of 02:42 p.m. on Tuesday.—AOL, GMA News