BOC to accredit petroleum importers and oil terminal operators

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) will accredit petroleum importers and oil terminals in the country, on top of the same measures to be implemented by the Department of Energy (DOE), in a move to curb oil smuggling into the country.
The new measure will be implemented after officials of DOE, Department of Finance, and Department of Justice and agreed in principle for the double accreditation of oil importers.

“BOC shall ask as a prerequisite for such accreditation the prior DOE accreditation of such entities/persons,” Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said.

A memorandum of agreement between the agencies is being drafted for the said measure to take effect.
Before a player can be accredited by DOE, importers should provide a six-month importation plan or a rolling importing forecast and its distribution or retailing plan. The Energy Department has also been tasked to set up monitoring or reporting systems and shall draw information from source countries of such oil importation by way of agreements with its counterpart agencies abroad.

On the other hand, the Department of Trade and Industry will also monitor the exportation of oil and petroleum products from the Philippines and will compare these to their list of grant from Board of Investments.

“The foregoing mechanisms shall be laid out in a Memorandum of Agreement to be signed by the Department of Finance, the Department of Energy, the Department of Justice, the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue,” Purisima said.

BOC earlier hired top survey firms after the government’s fuel marking strategy has not deterred oil smugglers from its illegal activities in the country.

BOC commissioner Angelito Alvarez said that it is dropping its fuel marking strategy against oil smugglers as current estimate on the forgone losses are estimated to be between P20 billion and P60 billion a year, or the same range as in the previous administration.

The six firms that were hired are SGS (Societe Generale de Surveillance), Cotecna, Intertek, Bureau Veritas (BV), Inspectorate International, and Admiral Testing Service.

“We will fully utilize the advance information that will be given by the surveyors as basis to determine the actual volume of imported oil coming into the country,” Alvarez said earlier.

He added that the report will also be used to monitor the identity of the persons involved in oil importation in the Philippines. (Billy Abdon) ???