PUV upgrades to be required for fuel vouchers

THE DEPARTMENT of Transportation (DoTr) said that it is preparing to issue fuel vouchers for public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers and operators affected by higher fuel taxes, and may restrict voucher eligibility to those who have modernized their vehicle fleets.

At the House ways and means committee hearing yesterday on the second package of the tax reform program, legislators raised concerns about inflation they claim was caused by the preceding package, known as the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law. The Finance department has said that the bulk of the fuel price increase is due to higher global crude prices, currently at about $77 per barrel.

Representative Dakila Carlo E. Cua (Quirino), who chairs the committee, requested the immediate implementation of the remaining social benefits program as provided for in TRAIN.

TRAIN provides for increased social spending to compensate for the higher taxes affecting the poorest members of the public, including cash transfers and fuel vouchers.

“I would like to take this opportunity to remind our colleagues in the Executive that the start of TRAIN 2 does not mark the end of TRAIN 1. I reiterate my call for the immediate implementation of the Social Welfare Benefits Program, among other social protection measures of TRAIN 1. With several sectors appealing to halt TRAIN 1, we must first demonstrate that TRAIN 1 works so that we can decisively move forward with TRAIN 2,” he said during the hearing.

Although the government has begun distributing P2.4 billion in cash transfers, the fuel vouchers to transport operators under the Pantawid Pasada program has yet to proceed.

“We’re still preparing the guidelines,” DoTr Undersecretary Thomas M. Orbos said.

He said the department is hoping to avoid a repeat of a previous fuel voucher program where about a third of the 179,000 recipients were found to have been ineligible.

“You have to understand that the modernization program is very integral here,” he said, indicating that operators who buy upgraded vehicles are a good proxy for the list of eligible recipients. “In the past implementations of the Pantawid Pasada program, we were not able to monitor the recipients because of the inaccuracy of the data at that time,” he added.

“There were 30-40% who were supposedly not on the list but availed of the program. It is not fair to those who are legitimate operators,” he added.

According to Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua, there are about P800 to P900 million worth of allocations for the program under the 2018 budget, valid only until the end of the year under budget rules.

Mr. Orbos said that the department is studying the possibility of making the vouchers conditional upon public utility vehicle (PUV) operators’ participation in the DoTr’s PUV modernization program (PUVMP)

That way, drivers and operators will be incentivized to register under the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), and shift to modernized jeepneys with EURO-4 compliant engines.

“We’re looking at a much bigger picture for the PUVMP. If it is simply a one-time assistance given to PUV operators through fuel vouchers, then that would be it. But we want to have valueadded support mechanisms by which we would rather incentivize those who want to modernize under the PUVMP rather than having to support those who operate obsolete and highly polluting PUV fleets,” LTFRB Chairman Martin B. Delgra III said. —