Hotel, restaurant owners say collecting more money from them ‘unfair’

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT, Philippines— Saying that it is “grossly unfair” to free port tourism, traders have petitioned the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) to stop collecting the environmental and tourism administrative fee (ETAF) from business establishments here.

At least 30 businessmen, representing several tourism-related establishments here, have signed the petition asking SBMA Chair Roberto Garcia to seek a “more logical solution” to address environment protection instead of forcing their customers to foot the bill.

The SBMA began collecting the fee on March 4 from visitors entering the Subic free port.

Packaged like value-added tax, the fee is collected from Subic enterprises each time a visitor consumes any commodity in Subic or takes up lodging inside the free port.

“We are appealing to the chair to scrap this present system of collecting the ETAF and opt for the most logical and less complicated system, which is to simply collect the fee at the entrance,” the businessmen said in their petition.

Those who signed the petition were owners, managers and representatives of several hotels and restaurants inside the free port.

Target

“We are for the environment,” they said. “But we abhor the thought that we are the only ones who are made a clear target here in the guise of imposing the ETAF on our clientele.”

The SBMA has required its locators to collect P20 for every person who enters Subic’s theme parks, beaches and other tourism establishments where fixed entrance fees are charged.

The SBMA has also directed the collection of an extra P100 for every person who plays for a whole day at golf courses and an additional P100 for every room rented out per night at hotels and other accommodation facilities in the free port.

The agency was also poised to collect the equivalent of two percent from gross purchases in restaurants, wellness and massage centers, and other establishments, but the SBMA deferred this to provide owners more time to prepare their systems.

“Sad to say, it is very clear that you are penalizing our visitors and patrons by imposing additional fees every time they avail of our services,” the businessmen told Garcia in their petition.

They said they would like the SBMA to provide them with details of a comprehensive tourism development plan for the free port for which the ETAF is to be collected.

Vague

“All we got were vague pronouncements on how the ETAF will be used to benefit the tourism-related outlets,” they said.

The businessmen also proposed that the SBMA collect the ETAF “directly from tourists at all entry points” of the free port instead of collecting this through the Subic establishments.

Garcia has yet to respond to the petition. But he had said the funds that would be generated from the ETAF would be used for programs to mitigate the carbon footprint of tourists and visitors.

He had also said the SBMA had consulted the business sector about the ETAF.

Garcia had rejected proposals to collect the fee at the entrances of the free port, arguing that it would be difficult for the port employees to distinguish tourists from zone residents.