QC gov’t hounding transport firms for uncollected tax

The Quezon City treasurer’s office has found two transport companies to be remiss in paying local taxes that are collected based on the number of vehicles they operate.

City Treasurer Edgar Villanueva said an inspection conducted on  Tuesday by a task force implementing the local revenue code found that the taxi firm MGE Transport and the bus company JAM Liner had not been paying the annual fixed tax rates since they started operating in the city.

“The companies paid the regulatory fees but they had not been paying the annual fixed rate. Our task force also discovered that they declared a fewer number of taxi or bus units than the actual number in operation,” Villanueva told the Inquirer.

According to the official, the local revenue code imposes an annual fixed rate of P500 for every delivery truck or van used to carry goods within Quezon City, P400 for every bus, P200 for every taxi and P100 for every public utility jeepney (PUJ).

Taxi and PUJ operators with less than three units are exempted from the tax.

“We are still computing how much the taxi company should pay because when the task force inspected the MGE taxi garage, the number of taxis exceeded the 150 units it declared when it was issued a business permit,” Villanueva said.

“When we asked the companies for proof that they paid the annual fixed rate for the units, they could only show regulatory permits such as the mayor’s permit,” he added.

Villanueva noted that the city is host to 33 garages and terminals operated by transport firms or cargo haulers, which are up for inspection by the task force. “After this, we will focus on terminals set up at malls,” he added.

Asked why the city government has become aggressive in collecting this particular tax only now, he said that was also one of the questions the task force wanted answered. “We have to find out why these taxes were not previously collected,” Villanueva said.