Palace awaits recommendations on oil tax suspension

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Monday said it would wait for the recommendation of the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Development Budget Coordinating Committee (DBCC) on the suspension of the collection of excise on fuel imports amid the continued surge in global oil prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“If there will be an option like that, it will have to begin with the recommendation from the DOF and its basis is the study of the DBCC. From there, the they finalize and transmit their recommendations to President Duterte,” Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said in his briefing.

Speaking at the televised Laging Handa briefing, Department of Energy (DOE) Undersecretary Gerardo Erguiza Jr. said the oil price hikes had more to do with the failure of the oil-producing countries to sustain their target daily output and the slowdown of oil production in the United States due to new energy policies.

He said the DOE supported bills amending the oil deregulation law to allow the government to intervene during prolonged oil price hikes and the suspension of the excise on fuel imports once crude oil prices reached $80 per barrel.

The House of Representatives has held three hearings on the bill but the Senate has not yet conducted any, he added.

“As early as October, we have been calling for, and we are the first one to call, officially through our letters [to Congress] for the oil deregulation law to be amended and the excise tax be suspended,” the DOE official said.

Erguiza said the department was projecting that oil would reach as high as $120 a barrel, which would translate to P66 average price per liter of gasoline and P59 for diesel in the Philippines.

He said he believed in the saying that “what goes up, must come down” and that oil prices would eventually go down.

In the meantime, Filipinos should help conserve fuel by avoiding “unnecessary travels,” he said.