New fees, new pains

Egay Uy . 

THE Land Transportation Office recently issued Memorandum Circular No. 2018-2158 which set guidelines for private motor vehicle center operations.

I see that the meat of concern of this circular is on the required inspection fee that owners of motor vehicles have to shell out on top of the usual fees we pay when we renew the registration of our motor vehicles.

Under the circular, vehicles weighing less than 4,500 kilos will be charged an inspection fee of P1,800 and a re-inspection fee of P900 if the vehicle fails the initial inspection.  Motorcycles, on the other hand, will be charged P600 and P300 for inspection and re-inspection, respectively. Does this mean vehicles weighing more than 4,500 kilos are exempted? But that would be another story.

The circular enumerates the items for inspection. There are items that can be inspected without using any other gadget to determine their workability but simple common sense. Examples are windshields, working wipers, rear view mirrors, early warning devices, and similar other parts of motor vehicles that can easily be seen and inspected.

The circular appears to be complicating the inspection probably to justify the exaction of exorbitant fees.  I hope I am wrong. But I have reported through the social media several public utility jeepneys that do not have working tail lights and yet they were allowed to be operated on public roads. Again, the determination of the presence or absence of tail lights do not require any other gadget but simple common sense.

At any rate, motor vehicles that are covered by the circular must undergo a roadworthy inspection before these are accepted for registration or reegistration by the LTO.  And that means owners of motor vehicles have to spend P1,800, or P2,700 depending on the result of the inspection.  Motorcycle owners on the other hand need to shell out at least P600 or P900 if the unit fails the initial inspection.

There is no question that Republic Act  4136, the Land Transportation and Traffic Code of the Philippines, requires in Section 16 for the LTO to inspect motor vehicles prior to registration.  The section says that if the LTO may refuse the register any motor vehicle found to be “unsightly, unsafe, overloaded, improperly marked or equipped, or otherwise unfit to be operated, or capable of causing excessive damage.”

To affluent motor vehicle owner, the required inspection and re-inspection fees may not be a dent to the pocket but to the ordinary motor vehicle owner, the fees are too much.

As observed by Sen. Grace Poe: “Before it imposes new fees, the LTO should first heed the basic traffic rule: ‘Stop, Look, Listen.  Over the past years, the list of LTO-imposed new charges or regulation is growing – from car plates, to emailed medical certificates, and then this inspection fee.”

The motor vehicle and motorcycle owners may be saying, “New fees, new pains.”

(Egay Uy is a lawyer. He chairs the City’s Regulatory and Complaint Board, co-chairs with the city mayor the City Price Coordinating Council, and chairs the city’s Joint Inspection Team.  He retired as a vice president of Cepalco.)