The Land Transportation Office should stop collecting P50 from motorists for non-existent car registration stickers until problems surrounding the long-delayed issuance have been resolved, Senator Francis Escudero said on Thursday.
Escudero, a vice presidential bet, issued this call as the LTO, an agency under the Department of Transportation and Communications, began accepting renewal applications for motor vehicle registration for 2016.
“The LTO should refrain from charging our motorists for unavailable car stickers. 2015 is almost over but most motorists have yet to receive their registration stickers that they have paid for,” the senator said.
“Motorists got nothing from paying the amount so it is just right for the agency to refund the cost of the stickers,” he added.
The veteran lawmaker said he has received complaints that some motorists have been paying for registration stickers for the past five years but they did not receive any sticker at all since the agency encountered supply problems in 2011.
“It is tantamount to robbing motorists of their money for non-existent registration stickers,” he said.
He said this is even worse than the ‘budol-budol gang’ because they see their supposed victims face-to-face and get their money yearly for a product that doesn’t exist,” he said.
Reports said the LTO late this year started releasing stickers for two-wheeled vehicles but failed to do the same for four-wheeled vehicles especially those seeking registration renewal.
The independent vice presidential bet thus called on the Commission on Audit to look into the money collected by the LTO for undelivered registration stickers over the past five years.
“The CoA should look into this because it involves a huge amount of money considering the number of motor vehicles registered in the country,” Escudero said.
Based on 2013 data from the LTO, there are 7,690,038 registered motor vehicles in the country consisting of 868,148 cars; 1,794,572 utility vehicles; 346,396 sport utility vehicles; 358,445 trucks; 31,665 buses; 4,250,667 motorcycles/tricycles; and 40,145 trailers.
On top of the delay in releasing registration stickers, the LTO is also suffering from a backlog of license plates.
This after the CoA barred the LTO from continuing its P3.85-billion motor vehicle plate standardization program as it deemed the project illegal.
The LTO in January this year started collecting P450 and P120 respectively from motor vehicle and motorcycle owners, respectively, renewing registration for the “standardized” license plates.
During his time as chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Escudero questioned the DoTC’s move to bid out the contract even if it was not provided for in the 2013 national budget.