The Land Transportation Office (LTO) is eyeing to raise P43 billion in revenues this year in going after 24.7 million unregistered vehicles against its original P33-billion target.
The P43-billion revenue target for 2024 is 28 percent higher than the P31-billion target in 2023.
LTO chief Vigor Mendoza II said this is historical for the LTO since it is the first time that the agency has increased its collection goal by such a huge number.
“The revenue target is very high but this is not the first time that we confront what seems to be an impossible task to achieve. We have done in some other ways, and with our continuous cooperation and hard work, I am sure that we will achieve another milestone by accomplishing this task,” he said.
“Even with our limitations, we have to do it together because we have to generate more revenues for our agency, for the national government, and for the Filipino people as a whole,” he added.
According to LTO data, 24.7 million or 65 percent of the 38.3 million vehicles in the country were considered to be delinquent.
The translated revenue loss could reach P37.10 billion for this year alone. Rio N. Araja
The amount is what the delinquent motor vehicle owners owed the government in terms of registration payment and penalties.
Mendoza said they would adopt an aggressive information drive and implementation of strategies to convince more delinquent vehicle owners to renew their registration and for others to renew their registration on time.
Despite the increased revenue target, he said the LTO should focus more on apprehending as many motorists since this would defeat the overall intention of the agency to impose initiative among the motorists to be law-abiding at all times “even if no one is looking and threatening them for arrest.”
“Kung ako ang tatanungin, ayaw ko na may maraming nahuhuli at mas gusto ko na may pagkukusa taying lahat sa ating obligasyon sa pamahalaan. That is why our main challenge is how to convince our kababayan to do their part in terms of being responsible and law-abiding citizens,” Mendoza said.
He said there must be a strict enforcement of the law enforcement “to teach these kinds of people a lesson.”
He said he has already met with all regional directors and gave them guidance in terms of initial plans to achieve the P43-billion revenue collection target for this year.
“What we need are aggressive information drives and strict enforcement of traffic laws and regulations,” he emphasized.