Expressway operators agreed on Monday to add the 12 percent value-added tax (VAT) on toll fees charged to private motorists “as soon as possible.”

As this developed, the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR) Tollway, which spans from Sto. Tomas to Balagtas towns in Batangas, has been permitted by the TRB to increase its rates on June 30, the same day when the 250 percent increase in the toll rates of the South Luzon Expressway (SLEx) is slated to be implemented.

With the 12 percent VAT added to the 250 percent toll increase at the Southern Luzon Expressway which takes effect on June 30, Class 1 vehicles will now have to pay P86.24 for the Alabang (Muntinlupa)-Calamba (Laguna) segment of the tollway; Class 2; tollway; Class 2; P173.60; and Class 3, P259.84.

Lawyers of the toll facilities told Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Joel L. Tan Torres during a closed-door meeting that they are just waiting for the go signal of the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) on the imposition of the tax.

To facilitate the collection of the VAT, Tan-Torres said he will meet with Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza before the end of the month for final discussions on the issue.

TRB is one of the agencies attached to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC).

Expressway owners decided to cooperate with the BIR in the collection of the tax after it threatened to slap them with more than P3 billion in back taxes to cover the years 2006 to 2009.

“The deficiency tax assessment could go beyond 2006 if the toll operators continue not to impose the tax to private car owners using the facilities,” Tan-Torres said.

The VAT was supposed to be implemented last April 1, but was delayed up to this time due to what some observers described as a “ticklish political issue.”

Motorists have been mounting protest against the imposition of the tax, declaring it was “unnecessary and additional financial burden.”

At the same time, they urged the incoming Aquino administration to either scrap it or shoulder the additional expense.

But Tan-Torres declared there was nothing political about the issue “as it was a requirement of the Tax Code to raise money to finance government projects.”

The VAT was in addition to the plan of the South Luzon Expressway to increase toll fees by as much as 220 percent covering all typesof vehicles using the facilities.

But the STAR Tollway operator, Star Infrastructure Development Corp. (SIDC), decided to defer the implementation of the toll hike to July 10, instead of June 30, according to information received by TRB spokesperson Julius Corpuz.

“I got information from SIDC that it is willing to defer the implementation to July 10,” Corpuz said when asked why the STAR Tollway operator decided not to implement the toll hike on June 30, the inauguration of President-elect Benigno Simeon Aquino III as the 15th President of the Republic.

Reports, citing TRB Executive Director Manuel Imperial, showed that the new toll rates for STAR Tollway which covers the 19.74-kilometer stretch from Lipa City to the Batangas City International Container Port would be the following: Class 1 vehicles (cars) traveling from end to end would have to pay P5 more from the existing rate of P55 to P60; P11 more for Class 2 vehicles (buses and light trucks), from existing P109, to new rate of P120; and P15 more for Class 3 vehicles (heavy trucks) or from existing rate of P164 to new rate of P179.

Corpuz said the toll increase covers the additional costs which SIDC has incurred with the additional construction works of the additional works requested by Batangas local government units among others the Pakalat Pedestrian Overpass and Malainen Pedestrian Overpass, and the Lapu-Lapu local road.

Rude welcome for Aquino
Meanwhile, the Unang Alyansa ng Pambansa at Pamprobinsiyang Lupon at Ugnayan ng Makatao at Maka-Diyos na mga Mamamahayag (1ST-APLUMA), an alliance of community media practitioners, said TRB’s order allowing the increase in toll rate SLEx starting June 30 is simply unacceptable to motorists and branded it as something intended to spoil President-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s inauguration.

“There’s no other way to look at it but this. The TRB allowed the increase on the first day of Noynoy’s administration just to put the new administration in a bad light in the eyes of the public,” said Ismael Amigo, 1ST-APLUMA national president.

“President Aquino should consider reviewing the toll hike as soon as possible as thousands of motorists and commuters plying the southern part of Luzon will surely be burdened by this increase,” Amigo said.