MANILA -- The abolition of the alleged corruption-plagued Road Board and the transfer of its funds sourced from the collection of the Motor Vehicle User Charge (MVUC) to the state’s General Fund, to ensure accountability and transparency in their use, is already covered by the original proposal of the Department of Finance (DOF) to Congress under the Duterte administration’s comprehensive tax reform program (CTRP).
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said in a statement on Monday that integrating the current and future funds of the Road Board to the General Fund will ensure that their appropriation is scrutinized by lawmakers as part of the normal budgeting process.
The reform of the MVUC or Road User’s Tax by adjusting its rates to account for inflation and simplifying it by collapsing the multitude of rates into a single one, based on weight, is included in Package 1-B of the CTRP.
Complementing these proposed reforms by the DOF is the abolition of the Road Board, which is authorized under Republic Act 8794 to manage and utilize the MVUC funds.
The DOF also specifically proposed to Congress that the Road Board funds be transferred to the General Fund.
“We want the current and future funds now earmarked for the Road Board to be part of the General Fund which will then be appropriated by the legislature as part of the normal budgeting process and not allocated by an un-elected Board, which lessens the transparency on the use of the funds,” Dominguez added.
Meanwhile, Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua explained that because both the Senate and the House of Representatives had already approved a bill abolishing the Road Board, the DOF found it unnecessary to include it in its Sept. 20, 2018 letter to the Congress a request for its abolition, and detailed instead the remaining tax reform proposals under the CTRP, which it asked lawmakers to approve.
“Both the House and Senate passed the bill on the abolition of the Road Board, which was in response to our proposals as outlined under Package 1-B of the CTRP. As the Congress already passed this proposal, the DOF's September 20, 2018 letter to the House leadership requesting it to pass the remaining tax packages expectedly does not include the Road Board abolition. The DOF-proposed restructuring of the motor vehicle user charge does include the transfer of the road fund to the general fund,” Chua said.
Chua issued the clarification after a congressional leader erroneously pointed out earlier that even the DOF did not want the Road Board abolished because its Sept. 20 letter to the House did not mention this, when it formally asked for the restructuring and adjustments in the MVUC as part of its appeal for the approval of Duterte administration’s remaining tax reform packages. (DOF PR)
