Salceda seeks creation of task force to look into fuel smuggling

Albay Representative Joey Salceda on Monday asked the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to form a task force that will look into fuel smuggling in the country.

According to Salceda, the national government had lost more or less P357 billion due to fuel smuggling from 2010 to 2019. He noted that the revenue losses were  increasing because of the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.

He said the task force could be called "Task Force Paihi."

"I am urging this task force to be created. Undertake programs and audits that will catch fuel smuggling. Expand the fuel marking program. Help us with new policy proposals to close loopholes on fuel smuggling. If necessary, we are willing to expand the budget for surveillance and investigation,” Salceda said.

"We have lost P357 billion in foregone revenues due to fuel smuggling from 2010 to 2019. While fuel marking has helped lower smuggling, the bleeding on the revenue side is still growing because we raised taxes on fuel products in 2018,” Salceda added.

The lawmaker believes that fuel smuggling was easy in freeport zones as fuel marking is conducted only at the gates, adding that it is less strict in freeports because these are outside customs territory.

Salceda also said customs bonded warehouses (CBWs), which are storage facilities where imported goods can be stored with duty payments being deferred, were a potential source of smuggling.

“If you can capture the ecozone and the customs officers in the CBWs in ecozones, you can practically do whatever you wish with smuggled fuel," Salceda said.

"That’s trouble, and if our refiners die and we continue to insist on directly imported finished fuel, this problem will also continue to grow,” he added.

He said a potential policy fix in this issue is to prohibit the use of freeport privileges for importers that do not supply ecozone locators.

“If you’re not supplying to an ecozone locator, why should you be exempt from fuel marking? Why should you even be in a freeport, unless you want to skirt certain regulations?” he said. — DVM, GMA News