THE government’s plan to lower fuel excise taxes will lead to lower revenues, the chief of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) said on Monday.
Customs Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno told reporters on Monday that the impact of the move, which President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants to implement given surging global oil prices, would depend on the final rate and duration.
“If the excise tax is reduced and the volume also declines, then our collections will also decrease,” he said.
“Hopefully, the situation will normalize soon. Right now, it is very unpredictable.”
Nepomuceno said that fuel excise taxes, while not the biggest contributor, still accounted for around 15 to 16 percent of total revenues.
The largest share of customs revenues continues to come from the importation of machinery and electronic products.
Under the Republic Act 10963 or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) law, unleaded premium gasoline is taxed P10 per liter. Diesel is subject to a P6/liter duty; kerosene, P5/liter; and liquefied petroleum gas, P3/liter.
The BOC, through its fuel marking program, collected P247.12 billion in excise taxes from petroleum products last year. This was 1.9-percent higher than 2024’s P242.36 billion.
The fuel marking program aims to combat oil smuggling and prevent revenue losses from illegal imports or misdeclarations.
Customs revenues hit P73.798 billion in February, exceeding the programmed P72.592 billion and also higher than the year-earlier take of P71.765 billion.
For the first two months of the year, revenues totaled P154.747 billion, up by 2.5 percent.
The BOC is tasked to collect P1.003 trillion this year.
The agency failed to meet its revenue goal last year with collections totaling P934.4 billion — below the P958.7-billion target but still higher than 2024’s P916.674 billion.
