|
By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo
Reporter
The government has organized a
taskforce that will monitor oil firms’ price adjustments in light
of the soaring price of crude in the world market.
In a statement, the Department of
Energy said the government formed the task force that also includes
the Department of Justice “to take a very active role” in
assessing and evaluating all factors to ensure fair and reasonable
pricing of petroleum products as mandated under Republic Act No.
8479 or the Downstream Oil Deregulation Law.
Under a memorandum of agreement
signed by the two government agencies on Monday, the task force
shall investigate “any person, any threatened, imminent or actual
cartelization or predatory pricing, the commission of any violation
under Section 12 of the Act or any unreasonable rise in the price of
a petroleum product.”
Undersecretaries from both
departments will serve as co-chairmen of the task force.
In an earlier study, the
University of Asia and the Pacific and the SyCip Gorres Velayo and
Co. accounting firm cleared oil firms of any irregularities in
previous price increases at the pump. The Energy department
commissioned the study last year, the results of which were released
in March.
Since the start of the year,
local oil companies have jacked up prices 19 times to recover their
“losses” after crude soared to record levels.
A number of groups have scored
the increases saying that current fuel prices, which are almost
double last year’s, are more than what they should be.
Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes
earlier said the department will keep a close eye on fuel
adjustments, including rollbacks, to ensure that market forces are
solely responsible for such moves.
“We will see to it that oil
companies do not unreasonably price their products,” he said.
Local retailers surprised
motorists last week when they announced a price rollback within days
of oil hitting a fresh record high in the world market.
Flying V, a member of the
Independent Philippine Petroleum Companies Association (IPPCA),
triggered the industry-wide rollback in gasoline prices. The
company’s move caught fellow IPPCA members as well as the Big
Three—Petron, Shell and Caltex—by surprise, forcing many of them
to respond with their own price reductions.
The industry’s price adjustment
last week was a turnaround from the past practice of immediately
raising pump prices whenever crude hits a new record high in the
world market.
Before the rollback, industry
players had claimed they still had about P6 in under-recoveries. In
announcing its reduction, Flying V however said that it managed to
earn modest margins on its sales, thus its decision to cut prices.
|
