MANILA, Philippines — Jeepney operators and drivers affected by higher oil prices stoked by a new tax law may need to upgrade their vehicles first to receive fuel vouchers from the government, the Department of Transportation said Tuesday.
The granting of fuel subsidies is one of the social mitigating measures provided in the recently-enacted Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act to cushion the effects of higher excise levies imposed on petroleum products.
But almost five months since the TRAIN law took effect, the government has yet to release the vouchers.
During the first congressional hearing on Package 2 of the government’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program, Transportation Undersecretary Thomas Orbos asked lawmakers for “enough time” to merge the TRAIN law’s fuel voucher program with the Public Utility Vehicle modernization program.
LTO: Vouchers as incentive to join modernization program
For his part, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board Chairman Martin Delgra III said officials want the fuel vouchers to serve as an “incentive” to those who will join the modernization program.
“If it’s simply a one-time assistance given to PUJ drivers through the fuel vouchers, that may be so but we would rather have it like a value-added support mechanism by which we would rather incentivize those who want to modernize under the PUV MP rather than having to support old jeepneys even if they hold a franchise,” Delgra explained.
“So we want to maximize the support that’s given to them by having to incentivize those [Public Utility Jeepney] operators who would be more than willing to modernize under the PUV modernization program,” he added.
Under the government’s modernization program, old jeepneys—those older than 15 years—will be replaced by electric-powered or Euro 4 compliant vehicles.
READ: Why some transport groups oppose PUV modernization
Although the TRAIN law did not elaborate on the granting of fuel vouchers to PUJ franchise holders, the Department of Finance in March last year said it would revive the “Pantawid Pasada Program" to provide cash cards to PUVs to lessen the impact of higher excise taxes on fuel.
The DOF said the government has almost P900 million that can be tapped “anytime” to implement the fuel subsidy program. The unprogrammed funds are valid only until the end of the year.
According to Orbos, the DOTr is still trying to generate the driver’s database so that only legitimate operators can avail of the fuel vouchers, noting that about 30-40 percent of public transport vehicles operate without franchise.
But the Transportation official assured lawmakers that his agency will not “sacrifice” the timeline for the release of fuel subsidy to qualified jeepney drivers.
“We may be a little late, but... first of all, I promise that we won't be so delayed that we won't be able to implement it on time," Orbos said in Filipino.