Billboard operators group not keen on paying road user’s tax

An outdoor advertisers group has bewailed Metropolitan Manila Development

Authority (MMDA) Francis Tolentino’s proposal to make it mandatory for billboard operators to pay the road user’s tax, saying there was no logic

behind it.

“We don’t see the need for that but our group is a law-abiding organization. If the law says we are included in the tax, then we will follow it,” lawyer Troy Bañez of the Outdoor Media Advocacy Group told the Inquirer in a phone interview on Monday.

Bañez, however, pointed out that he saw no “direct connection between roads and billboards,” adding that their signboards were standing on

private lots.

He expressed concern that the move may be Tolentino’s way of getting back at the group which sued the MMDA chair last month for usurpation of authority.

In particular, the group questioned four memorandum circulars issued by Tolentino which imposed additional restrictions on the size and content of billboards.

“We hope that this proposal is not a retaliatory measure. We are only advocating the proper implementation of the additional rules and regulation of the National Building Code,” Bañez said.

On Sunday, Tolentino suggested that outdoor advertising operators be included among those required to pay the road user’s tax since billboards “derive their value solely from their direct use of roads.”

“Simply put, if there aren’t [any] roads, there wouldn’t be billboards,” he said.

Tolentino added that the additional revenues could be used for road maintenance and improvement projects, including the installation of traffic safety signs.