BECAUSE there is a chronic delay in the collection of funds for the rehabilitation and maintenance of roads and bridges nationwide, the Road Board is pushing for the immediate modernization and automation of the Land Transportation Office (LTO), which handles the collection of road charges.
According to Jose Antonio Aguas, chief of staff and head of operations of Road Board, there is a need for the modernization of the systems in the LTO, saying its processes are still manual.
“In fact, even the actual deposit of the MVUC, or the Motor Vehicle User’s Charge, funds, to the Bureau of Treasury [BOTr] is literally manual,” he said.
There is a quarter-long backlog in the collection of funds because of the manual process.
“Right now, we have [a] three-month delay in [the] collection of funds, because the actual deposit is done manually. There are 180 LTO collecting agencies in the Philippines each of everyone deposits to the Bureau of Treasury,” he added.
The Road Board is collecting about P1 billion a month from the LTO.
Every time car owners register their motor vehicles, a large portion from the total fee goes to the MVUC, otherwise known as the road users’ tax.
MVUC collections are earmarked exclusively for road maintenance, including the improvement of road drainage, the installation of adequate and efficient road-safety devices and air pollution.
Upon the collection, the LTO remits all the collections to the BOTr, which, in turn, deposits the revenues in four special trust accounts provided by law—80 pecent goes to the Special Road Support Fund and 5 percent for Special Local Road Fund.
The remaining 7.5 percent goes to the Special Control Fund and the other 7.5 percent is allocated to the Special Vehicle Pollution Control Funds. This particular fund is also intended to assist the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to carry out its mandate for the Clean Air Act.
Earlier, Sen. Joseph G. Victor Ejercito filed a resolution urging the DOTr to establish and implement online registration for motor vehicles to promote transparency in LTO with regard to its manner of transacting with the public.
The online car registration will also simplify the procedure, thereby reducing red tape and expedite transactions with the agency.
The resolution said the LTO has been surrounded by allegations of corruptions irregularities and modus operandi in performing its mandate of registering motor vehicles and issuance of driver’s license.
However, in reality, the public spends an average of two to four days to register a motor vehicle due to inefficiency and inadequacy of LTO employees and facilities.
