Filipino consumers can lean on interim financial relief this week, as the price of gasoline products had been rolled back by P1.00 per liter; and diesel prices by P0.60 per liter, as announced by the oil companies.

Similarly, the price of kerosene commodity, which is a base for aviation fuel and also an essential product for households as well as other industries, had been trimmed by P0.65 per liter.

As of this writing, the industry players that already sent notices on their price cuts had been Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation, Seaoil. Cleanfuel, PetroGazz, Chevron and PTT Philippines effective Tuesday (November 9); and their price leads had been anticipated to be matched by their competitors.

Prior to this round of adjustment, a monitoring report of the Department of Energy (DOE) showed that pump cost movements still incurred a net increase of P21.95 per liter for gasoline; P18.10 per liter for diesel; and P15.74 per liter for kerosene.

The downtrend in prices though is seen as temporary, given that Monday (November 8) trading in the world market had shown early signs again of price climbs in fuel commodities – that in the days ahead could trigger new wave of price upswings.

Given the seesaw of international oil prices that have been exposing the vulnerabilities of heavily import-dependent markets like the Philippines, a proposed legislation on the suspension of oil taxes had already advanced to deliberation phase this week.

The measure, as introduced by House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Joey Salceda, is targeting to stop for six months (from December 2021 to June 2022) the collection of excise taxes for fuel products like diesel and kerosene products; while the excise tax for gasoline shall be reduced by P3.00 per liter from currently at P10.00 per liter.

If that policy is enforced, he acknowledged that the revenue losses for the government would amount to P55.04 billion within the specified six-month stretch.

Salceda qualified that the estimated revenue losses from deferment of excise taxes for diesel would be P36.42 billion; then P18.28 billion for gasoline; and P0.34 billion for kerosene.

“These losses will be partly offset by increases in VAT collections due to rising prices, which would be around P19.01 billion from these products,” the lawmaker emphasized.

He further noted that “continued increase in prices would make this offsetting effect even stronger, reducing net revenue losses further.” ###


Source: Manila Bulletin (https://mb.com.ph/2021/11/08/gasoline-prices-cut-by-p1-00-liter-diesel-by-p0-60-liter/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gasoline-prices-cut-by-p1-00-liter-diesel-by-p0-60-liter)