With the continued volatility in world crude prices, industrialist Raul T. Concepcion is urging the Department of Energy (DOE) to keep the public informed of oil price trends.
Concepcion, who is also chairman of the Consumer Oil and Price Watch, is requesting the DOE to publish data on oil prices every Monday, noting that there is an existing rule on the disclosure of oil prices.
“Three years after the enactment of the oil deregulation law, then Energy Secretary Camacho issued a circular requiring oil companies to notify the DOE on the details of oil adjustments, whether upwards or downwards, at least one day in advance,” he said.
According to Concepcion, this price monitoring scheme would help ease public concerns amidst the continuing rise in domestic pump prices.
“The notices will show the actual inventories of the oil companies that will be the basis for determining if they have under-recoveries or over-recoveries on their oil prices, 60 to 90 days inventory for refiners and 15 to 30 days inventory for importers,” he said.
He said this reporting scheme would also give the oil companies reasons to adjust their prices.
“This will also determine if there is a need to increase local pump prices,” he said.
Concepcion said this reporting system will also apply to all price movements of oil firms.
“As for oil price reductions, the same system applies. Again, oil companies are tasked to submit the same data to the DOE one day in advance,” he said.
The COPW head said he is insistent in institutionalizing this reporting and disclosure process to remedy the problem of perceived lack of transparency to the public on oil price adjustments.
“As it is now, the oil companies are quick to raise pump prices and yet slow when lowering them,” he said.
As this developed, Concepcion said the COPW has changed its earlier position to the Senate committee on trade to lower the value-added tax from 12 percent to six percent as proposed because this would cushion the impact of the food and energy crisis.
“The government can use the VAT proceeds to grant the Department of Agriculture a higher budget to subsidize the NFA rice, the LPG 11-kg tank per household,” he said.