MANILA, Philippines – If revenues generated from fees and charges will be of any basis, motorists still waiting for their long-delayed plates may have more reason to complain.
The Land Transportation Office (LTO), which caught public ire for slow issuance of vehicle plates, topped other national government agencies in terms of revenues generated from transaction fees last year.
In total, state earnings from public transacting with them reached P36.41 billion, up 11.09 percent from 2014 and the highest since 1997, data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed. Of these, LTO raised P7.36 billion, up 51.18 percent during the same period.
"Fees should not be the primary source of government revenues and should only cover the cost of services rendered," said Nicholas Antonio Mapa, economist at the Bank of the Philippine Islands.
"That said, I echo the notion that increased fees without corresponding service in return is completely unacceptable," he said in an e-mail.
LTO officials could not be reached for comment.
Following LTO was the Land Registration Authority (LRA), which collected P4.69 billion last year or a fifth more than it did in 2014.
"We've seen phenomenal growth in road vehicle sales and also real estate dwellings, so this is all part and parcel of increased economic activity," Mapa explained.
Car sales expanded 23 percent last year, contributing to an already congested Metro Manila. Property loans, meanwhile, rose 6.8 percent to P1.4 trillion as of June 2015.
Remrick Patagan, research director at the Institute for Development and Econometric Analysis Inc., said higher fee rates could have also contributed.
In 2013, the departments of Finance and Budget and Management as well as the National Economic and Development Authority instructed agencies to review charges and fees with the aim of increasing them.
Their joint circular argued that costs of services being provided, technology, and inflation rate have risen through the years, hence, would warrant fee adjustments.
"Provided that they are used properly, transaction fees can play an important role in ensuring efficient public services in many government agencies," Patagan said in a separate e-mail.
But Mapa noted this did not happen. "The opposite seems to have happened under this administration," he said.
Aside from the LTO and the LRA, agencies that collected billion-peso fees last year were the National Telecommunications Commission (P4.68 billion), Bureau of Immigration (P2.99 billion), Securities and Exchange Commission (P2.55 billion), Department of Foreign Affairs Consular Office (P2.04 billion), Mines and Geosciences Bureau (P1.45 billion), and the Energy Regulatory Commission (P1.21 billion).
Completing the top 15 were the Maritime Industry Authority (P864.96 million), Professional Regulation Commission (P851.29 million), National Statistics Office (P802.5 million), offices of the secretaries of the departments of Public Works and Labor (P743.54 million and P659.92 million, respectively), National Bureau of Investigation (P616.13 million), and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (P587.87 million).
Fees and charges form a small part of total revenues collected last year that amounted to P2.11 trillion, data showed.