Unspent road users’ charges eyed for pedestrian, bike lanes

Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto wants the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to include pedestrian and bicycle pathways in its major projects and tap the road users’ charge that the government imposed in 2004, but was unspent in 2021.

In a statement on Sunday, Recto noted that pedestrian and bike lanes have been “sidelined and waylaid” in the government’s infrastructure agenda, although the Motor Vehicle User’s Charge (MVUC) that was imposed beginning in 2004 was unspent in 2021.

According to Recto, the unspent MVUC collection, which was mandated by Republic Act No. 8794 and implemented by the DPWH, amounted to P82.2 billion in 2021 and could be used to fund pedestrian and bicycle pathways.

The MVUC is one of the packages in the government’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program and was meant to fund the maintenance of national and provincial roads as well as reduce air pollution.

Previous collection

Although the law was passed in 2000, it took the government four years, or in 2004, to set rates for the levy. The government is also planning to adjust the MVUC “to inflation.”

But the government has not even explained where previous collections went and why P82.2 billion in MVUC collections were unspent in 2021.

“It is time to elevate wide pedestrian and bike lanes, whether ground-level or elevated, covered or not, to the league of major construction works,” the Batangas lawmaker said, adding that the construction of infrastructure for biking and walking was currently being undertaken by the Department of Transportation. INQ