After holding on for a day, the country’s major oil companies finally followed the lead of smaller competitors and also hiked their prices for gasoline, diesel and kerosene by P1.00 per liter effective Wednesday (January 13).

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation and Chevron Philippines jacked up their retail costs at the pumps effective midnight, while Petron Corporation trailed along with its price uptrend implemented at 6:00 am.

Shell and Petron though set prescriptions that their premium gasoline products V-Power and Blaze, respectively, will have lower price adjustments of P0.75 per liter.

After Flying V’s price hike, other players followed – namely Eastern Petroleum, Seaoil Philippines and Phoenix Petroleum.

While price increases are being implemented this week, confusions have ensued among industry players as to the specific application of the zero duty rate for petroleum products set forth under the common effective preferential tariff (CEPT) scheme sanctioned by the Asean Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA).

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo already issued Executive Order 850 to underpin the implementation of the zero tariff schedules for specified goods, but players in the oil industry have been batting for clearer guide lines from the Bureau of Customs (BoC) on the specific coverage and when the reduced tariffs be applied on their product imports.

Flying V senior vice president Joey Cruz particularly raised that the BoC must issue guidelines or properly apprise the covered sectors on the implementation of the zero tariff.

“We have to know when the zero duty rates will be applied on our product imports so we can reflect corresponding reductions in our pump prices,” he said.

Referencing on the ‘rules of origin’ dictum, it was emphasized that the preferential tariff rate shall be applicable to products sourced from the Asean region.

However, the oil companies noted that such tariff classification may not be duly applied to all players since some of them are sourcing products from other countries. In fact, even the sourcing parameters of importers are diverse – with some of them getting products from Korea and other Asian countries (outside Asean’s enclave).

The tariff reduction also technically excludes the oil refiners, since their crude product sourcing are not within Asean countries.

The oil firms’ price adjustments have been thrown into the spotlight once more after Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes advanced words that pump prices were supposed to go down by P0.70 per liter this week because of the zero duty rate set under ATIGA.