Bills mandate safer parking facilities, higher road users’ tax

A female motorist once parked her SUV in the paid parking facility of a Quezon City mall. When she returned to her car, she found that a window had been smashed and P200,000 worth of valuables had been stolen.

That motorist happened to be ACT CIS Partylist Representative Rowena Taduran. Months before this incident, two congressmen, 1 PACMAN Partylist Representatives Michael Odylon L. Romero and Enrico Pineda, filed a House Resolution calling the attention of Congress to the complaints of some motorists who had also been victimized by vandals, “bukas kotse” robbers, and carnappers while parked at business establishments that charge “exorbitant parking fees” but refuse to be held liable for anything happening to a parked car.

Pay the parking fee but “Park at your own risk” is standard procedure at shopping malls and commercial establishments in Metro Manila. With the support of Rep. Taduran, the Parking Operations and Fees Regulation Act has been unanimously approved by the House Committee on Trade and Industry despite the objections posted by mall owners, commercial establishments, and independent parking operators.

CONSOLIDATED. The bill, a consolidation of 13 different legislative proposals, is the first to win committee approval in two decades. Similar measures regulating the charging of parking fees failed to pass committee, much less plenary approval, in the past. All the bills filed before, including this one, has a provision requiring carpark operators to secure vehicles and provide protection to all clients.

In filing the bill, Reps. Romero and Pineda pointed out that the State has the “inherent duty” to protect consumers from unncessary, unreasonable and unjustified exactions, therefore an investigation of carpark operations was needed.

The bill covers parking facilities for all types of vehicles including bicycles, motorcycles, and automobiles. It also sets minimum standards for all parking facilities including the provision of CCTV cameras, security guards, the number of entrance and exit booths to prevent traffic congestion plus other safety standards.

FREE PARKING. Shopping mall customers are entitled to free parking for the first two hours, provided that the vehicle owner can show proof of a transaction worth at least P500.

Vehicles of hospital inpatients will be exempted from parking fees. But vehicles of non-patrons of shopping malls and hospital non-patients and outpatients will be charged P20 per hour, which is more than the P40 flat fee usually charged for the first three hours by malls and hospitals, followed by P10 per succeeding hour or a fraction thereof.

On the other hand, the bill allows commercial establishments to charge P40 for the first four hours and P20 per succeeding hour provided that the maximum does not exceed P140 per day. This translates into a parking fee of P140 for parking 9 hours a day,

SENIOR CITIZENS. The bill does not mention exemptions or discounted parking fees for senior citizens and PWDs (persons with disabilities.) In some parts of Metro Manila like Muntinlupa City, senior citizens and PWDs are entitled to unlimited free parking at malls, commercial establishments, and hospitals. The Ayala Malls in Makati grant senior citizens and PWDs a discounted parking fee.

At educational institutions, parking fees shall be waived for the first two hours for officials, faculty members, employees, and students, after which the fee is P20 per hour. Visitors will be charged P20 per hour with no free first two hours.

At open parking facilities, the charge is P30 for the first three hours followed by P20 per succeeding hour. Multilevel parking buildings may charge P40 for the first three hours and P20 per succeeding hour or fraction thereof.

The charge for street parking is P50 per hour and for overnight parking, the maximum is P150 per vehicle. The maximum penalty for lost parking tickets is P150 per vehicle.

ROAD USERS’ TAX TO DOUBLE

Meanwhile, motorists will emerge from the COVID-19 shutdown later this year to discover that the cost of keeping a car will increase by as much as 90 percent.

While public attention was focused on avoiding the Coronavirus, the House of Representatives in plenary session overwhelmingly approved House Bill 6136 which, starting on a staggered basis this year, will almost double the Motor Vehicle Road Users’ Tax (MVRUT) by 2022.

Afterwards, Congress left for the Holy Week break and will return to resume sessions on May 4.

The MVRUT is the tax the government collects through the annual registration fee that motor vehicle owners, estimated at 11 million, pay to the Land Transportation Office (LTO).

P90 BILLION. Sponsored by Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, chairman of the House committee on ways and means, the bill is projected to raise some P90 billion in the first five years of implementation.

Half of the incremental revenues will finance the Public Utility Vehicles Modernization Program and other government road safety programs that aim to prevent fatal road accidents and assist the victims thereof.

The other half will go to the administration’s Build, Build, Build massive infrastructure projects constructing roads, bridges, and railways nationwide..

Under the bill, in 2020 the first year of implementation the MVRUT on cars and light vehicles weighing up to 1,600 kilos will rise 30 percent from the present P1,600 to P2,080.

In the next two years of implementation, the tax will be increased to P2,560 in 2021 and P3,040 in 2022 respectively for light vehicles which make up the bulk of motor vehicles nationwide.

GVW-BASED. Rates for all other vehicles like utility vehicles, SUVs, buses, trucks and trailers will be based on a uniform per kilogram of gross vehicle weight (GVW): P1.40/kg of GVW in the first year, P2.50/kg of GVW in the second year, P3.40/kg of GVW in the third year.

The road users’ tax for vehicles weighing over 1,600 kilos but below 2,300 kilos will increase to P4,680 this year (2020), P5,670 in 2021 and P6,840 in 2022.

The MVRUT for vehicles weighing above 2,300 kilos will be raised to P10,400 this year, P12,800 in 2021, and P15,200 in 2022.

In 2023, the fourth year of implementation, a uniform rate based on the vehicle’s gross weight with subsequent annual increment of 5 percent will be imposed.

Rep. Salceda said that since the rich will pay the tax, the bill is progressive and not anti-poor. He pointed out that about 55.6 percent of all motor vehicles are owned by the top 10 percent of the population, while only 1.7 percent are owned by the bottom 30 percent. So the ones paying the MVRUT would be mainly the primary road users.