The Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) is investigating local government units (LGUs) that are allegedly collecting unathorized pass-through fees and taxes from vehicles transporting goods despite a directive of the national government.
Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2021-01 signed on April 28 by ARTA, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Department of Finance (DOF), prohibits the collection of fees and taxes on the transport of goods and products.
This covers “charges for wharfage, tolls for bridges or otherwise, sticker fee, discharging fee, delivery fee, market fee, toll fee, entry fee, and/or mayor’s permit fee, or other taxes, fees, or charges in any form whatsoever upon such goods or merchandise.”
The JMC was said to improve the country’s logistics sector, one of the five priority areas of ARTA’s National Effort for the Harmonization of Efficient Measures of Inter-related Agencies (NEHEMIA) program.
Members of ARTA continue to make rounds in LGUs to investigate.
Afterwhich, the anti-red tape watchdog, together with DILG and DOF Bureau of Local Government Finance, will meet with the different LGUs to explain and exact cooperation for the implementation of the JMC.
ARTA did not disclose the LGUs involved.
