Huge increase in diesel, gasoline prices on June 7

By VJ Bacungan, for Automart.PH

METRO MANILA, – Motorists can expect a massive increase in the price of diesel on June 7, 2022.

Cleanfuel said in a June 6, 2022 Facebook post that it will raise prices by P6.55 a liter by 8:01 a.m. tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Unioil said in a June 4, 2022 Facebook post that it forecasts diesel to up by P6.30 to P6.50 a liter.

This comes after oil firms hiked diesel prices by P1.20 a liter on May 31, 2022.

For unleaded, Cleanfuel said it will raise prices by P2.70 a liter tomorrow, following P1.70 a liter rollback last Tuesday.

Unioil said it expects an increase of P2.50 to P2.70 a liter for gasoline.

The Duterte administration said on March 2022 that it will not suspend the fuel excise taxes stipulated by Republic Act 10963 or Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act.

The measure increased the price of gasoline by P10 a liter and diesel by P6 a liter to help generate additional revenue for government projects.

Instead, the Department of Finance will continue to provide monthly cash subsidies to the poorest 50 percent of Filipino households.

The Energy Department will also provide P3 billion worth of fuel subsidies and discounts to the transport sector, fisherfolk and farmers.

Fuel prices driving up cost of goods

In a May 2022 report, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the country’s inflation rate for April 2022 reached 4.9 percent, which is higher than the 4 percent recorded on March 2022.

Inflation rate is used to measure the increase in the price of goods and services. The average inflation rate for the year now stands at 3.7 percent, which is still within the government’s target range of 2 to 4 percent for this year.

The PSA noted major hikes for transport services and fuel, with diesel prices going up by 83.7 percent and gasoline prices jumping by 43 percent from March 2022.

Diesel is primarily used by trucks operated by large companies to transport goods all around the country. The fuel also powers essential mass transportation like jeepneys and buses.

The recent increases are partly because of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which started following a Russian military invasion on February 2022.

Russia supplies 12 percent of the global oil market, according to a March 2022 report by multinational bank JPMorgan & Co.