Executive Order 449 that was signed by President Arroyo in 2006 reduced the import tariff on bioethanol from 10 percent to one percent so as to facilitate the compliance of the country to the Philippine biofuel law because local production of bioethanol was not enough to meet the country’s fuel demand.
The Biofuel Law mandates a certain percentage of bioethanol being mixed with the gasoline being sold at the pumps. In order to comply with this, oil companies are allowed to import bioethanol till the local production of bioethanol is sufficient to meet the demand. Importation of bioethanol however is to be controlled and monitored by the DOE (via the National Biofuels Board) so as to not harm the local producers of bioethanol.
The Ethanol Producers Association of the Philippines (EPAP) now are requesting for the Department of Energy (DOE) to speed up their review of this order. According to them this importation is affecting their bottom line.
The demand of the bioethanol producers is logical because the purpose of the importation is only so that the mixing ratio of bioethanol with the gasoline sold at retail is met. Too much importation can lead to competition between local bioethanol and imported bioethanol which will be detrimental to the local biofuel industry that can be deemed as still being in its infancy.
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Category: Bioethanol, Automotive
