The country’s oil companies raised pump prices on Tuesday by as much as P0.50 per liter to reflect the movement in world oil prices.
The firms raised the price of diesel and kerosene by P0.50 per liter, respectively, and gasoline by P0.45 per liter, the fifth consecutive price increase of the year.
PTT Philippines “will implement the following price hikes effective 6 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018, a gasoline increase of P0.45 per liter and diesel increase of P0.50 per liter,” the company said in its advisory.
Seaoil Philippines said its pump prices went up “to reflect movements in the international petroleum market.”
Last Jan. 23, the oil firms also raised the price of diesel and kerosene by P0.50 per liter, and gasoline by P0.35 per liter.
The Energy Department, in its latest monitoring, noted that global oil prices went up “due to optimism” after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies expressed interest to prolong their partnership even after their production cuts.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy, is planning to set “effective mechanisms” to monitor the levels of supply of petroleum products, and impose stricter penalties for late and incorrect inventory submissions of oil companies and even the negligence on the part of government agencies in monitoring price movements.
“I can foresee that we need to penalize oil companies if they don’t submit their inventories on time, or if they give incomplete or inaccurate information about their stock levels,” Gatchalian said.
With or without the additional excise taxes from the new Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law, “these companies are still duty-bound to submit their monthly inventories. And the DoE should be on top in ensuring their compliance,” he said.
Under Section 14 of the Oil Deregulation Law or Republic Act 8479, the Department of Energy is mandated to maintain a periodic schedule of present and future total inventory of petroleum products in the country.
Oil companies are required to submit a monthly report that details their sales and consumption levels, actual and projected importations, and inventory of oil products.
The department earlier admitted that some oil firms have yet to fully comply with submitting detailed reports on the exhaustion level of their old stocks, both at the depot and station levels. The agency is still validating the accuracy of information they received.
Gatchalian has called for a hearing in relation to reports that some gasoline stations have started raising their pump prices with their old stocks as an effect of the additional excise tax on petroleum being imposed under RA 10963 or the TRAIN Act.
The senator urged the DoE to speed up validation and analysis of the information it received, and start investigating whether companies and stations took advantage of the situation through undue profiteering.
“So even if oil companies and gas stations already raise prices using their new supply in accordance to TRAIN, they would still have to be audited by the DoE and determine whether they unduly increased their prices without any clear basis, in which case they will have to face the appropriate penalties and fines,” he said.
The DoE is expecting about 90 percent of these companies to start adopting the increase based on TRAIN by the end of January.
With the additional excise tax, unleaded gasoline would increase by about P2.97 per liter, while the price of diesel will surge by P2.80 per liter.