Eurocontrol Technics Ord EUCTF

The Philippine BOC plans Fuel Marking for 1st quarter 2017

[zenvesting]

The Philippines Bureau of Customs is moving ahead with Fuel Marking in the 1st quarter of next year. I read several news releases about today's news, but the interested parties are not identified in any of them.

The Philippine administration has previously estimated it would cost about $25 million to implement fuel marking again, which means this one contract alone could push the SICPA royalty stream above the guaranteed minimum of $1.5 million/year.:

https://www.rappler.com/business/industries/power-and-energy/100552-fuel-marking-scheme-boc-smuggling

It's could be just a coincidence, but I found it interesting this news article draws a parallel between fuel marking to the excise tax stamps used for cigarettes and liquor, other markets SICPA is dominant in:
https://www.philstar.com/business/2016/10/26/1637264/customs-mulls-revival-fuel-marking-scheme

This is one of the more concise articles published today that mentions the 1st quarter time frame:

https://www.malaya.com.ph/business-news/news/fuel-marking-scheduled-q1-curb-smuggling

Fuel marking scheduled Q1 to curb smuggling

October 26, 2016

The Duterte administration plans to implement a fuel-marking scheme within the first quarter of next year to discourage oil smuggling according to the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

Marking can either be molecular tags, fluorescent or color that can easily be detected by specific machines to differentiate smuggled fuel from properly taxed fuel. 

Customs commissionerNicanorFaeldon will recommend the implementation of the fuel-marking system to the Department of Finance.

“No one knows the exact volume of fuel that is coming in, no one know knows the volume of smuggled fuel. Fuel-marking will address all those issues,” Faeldon said.

He added the BOC will conduct a consultation with the stakeholders to implement the program as planned.

“Maybe next year. We have to sit down and satisfy inquiries about it. First quarter, as soon as we are done with the consultation with them. I’m sure they cannot defend their position,” Faeldon said.

The estimated price for the fuel marking is at six centavos per liter, he said. 

“Because of that, we can monitor up to the last liter how much fuel we are bringing to the country. Right now, we cannot definitively account for the volume of fuel we have. That marking will give us an accurate data how much volume of fuel we’re bringing into the country,” he explained.

“Even locally-produced (will be marked), that’s why we can monitor the volume they are producing. Every time we put the marking, we know the volume,” Faeldonadded.

Fuel-marking was already implemented years ago. Swiss inspection services provider SocieteGenerale de Surveillance was then tapped for the fuel-marking system.

Alberto Lina, former customs commissioner, previously said he wanted to implement some changes in the scheme because in the previous system, fuel markings were placed on tax-exempt products while no markings were made on tax-paid fuel products.

“It shouldn’t be that way because it means that all products without fuel-markings are tax-paid. We were discussing that the fuel-markings will be placed on tax-paid products instead. If the fuel products have no markings, it means those are smuggled,” Lina said early this year.