LTO aims to collect P43B in listup fees

LTO chief Vigor Mendoza (From the LTO website)

MANILA, Philippines — The Land Transportation Office (LTO) is aiming to collect P43 billion in revenues this year, not through apprehensions but through fees from vehicle registrations and registration renewals.

In a statement on Thursday, Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza II, chief of the LTO, said the agency hoped that through “aggressive information drive and implementation of strategies,” more delinquent vehicle owners would be convinced to renew their registration and others to renew their registration on time.

Mendoza said the increased revenue target does not mean that the LTO would 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 with arrest.

“If I’m asked, I don’t want many being apprehended and what I want more is we all voluntarily do our obligations to the government. That is why our main challenge is how to convince our countrymen to do their part in terms of being responsible and law-abiding citizens,” he said.

“But we know the realities on the ground. There are really those who are stubborn and also smart alecks like those who are saying why the need to register when you’re not being apprehended anyway. This is the part that the strict enforcement will come into play. We have to be strict in law enforcement to teach these kinds of people a lesson,” he said.

Mendoza also said the agency’s strategic plan and massive information drive would include the use of social media.

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‘Historical’

With Filipinos known for being among the top users of using social media platforms around the world, he said the challenge is how to maximize the ideas to encourage more people to be committed to the obligations that come with motor vehicle ownership and the privilege of owning a driver’s license.

According to Mendoza, the P43-billion revenue target for 2024 is around 28 percent higher than the P31-billion target in 2023. He said the target was “historical” for the LTO since it was the first time that the agency would increase its collection goal by such a huge amount.

“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. But we have done this in other undertakings, and with our continuous cooperation and hard work, I am sure that we will achieve another milestone by accomplishing this task,” he said.