BOC eyeing donation of seized car plates

SAN PEDRO CITY—Still waiting for your new car plates?

The agony of waiting for the release of new vehicle plates may soon be over after Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina said the Bureau of Customs (BOC) was inclined to donate to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) the 600,000 license plates the agency had seized in the Port of Manila last year.

Lina said the BOC was just waiting for the final signature of Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima for what he described as a “turn over” of the license plates to the LTO.

“Actually, donasyon ang lalabas (Actually, this will turn out to be a donation),” Lina said in an interview on Wednesday in Cabuyao City in Laguna province, where he witnessed the destruction of counterfeit products seized by the government.

“’Pag na-turn over na, e di ’yung mga nangangailangan ng plaka, you and I, bayad na wala pang plaka, e di maibibigay na ’yung plaka mo… . Makakatulong ’yun (When these are turned over, those needing new plates, like you and I who have paid for these plates but have not been issued one, can have their plates… . This donation will help ease that process),” Lina said.

The LTO has been criticized by vehicle owners for the delay in the release of the new plates.

The license plates arrived in 11 containers at the Manila International Container Port early last year, but the consignee, Knieriem BV Goes and Power Plates Development Concept Inc. (JKG-PPI), failed to claim them, resulting in taxes and duties amounting to P40 million.

The BOC, last month, said it would auction off the vehicle plates but this was deferred after the company signified its interest to settle its obligation.

“We gave them (JKG-PPI) the summary of payment. They were given until end of March [but no payment was made]. We need to do our job,” Belle Maestro, BOC spokesperson, said in a telephone interview on Thursday.

She said the containers had been taking up space at the port, rendering port operations “inefficient.”

JKG-PPI, a Dutch-Filipino-owned company, won the P3.8-billion contract with the Department of Transportation and Communications to supply the car plates. The Commission on Audit, however, issued a notice of disallowance when the company failed to deliver the plates.

The plates, Maestro said, are now considered “abandoned.”