Gov’t urged to go easy with plan to hike fees, charges

MANILA, Philippines – The government should go easy with its plan to increase fees and charges, a lawmaker said yesterday.

Senator Ralph Recto urged the government to study carefully its plan to increase fees and charges imposed by state agencies in the face of looming adjustments in toll fees and utility rates.

Recto, chairman of the Senate ways and means committee also said that the agencies planning to raise fees should also make sure that services would indeed improve.

“The agencies signaling their intention to raise their fees and charges should prove beyond doubt that they are deserving of the additional centavos that the transacting public would shell out,” Recto said.

He noted that some government agencies that are planning to raise fees have been consistently known as inefficient or corrupt.

He challenged agencies such as the National Telecommunications Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission to justify their planned 20 percent to 30 percent increase in fees and charges.

Earlier, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said that the government is looking at raising the fees and charges slapped by state agencies.

The move is part of efforts to boost state coffers and enable the government to improve the services provided by these agencies.

Some agencies, which are in the frontline of government service, will have to raise their fees and charges by as much as 200 percent to shore up non- tax revenues for an estimated annual incremental revenue of P4.15 billion.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is already studying the plans to jack-up government fees.

This developed as Recto also criticized the Department of Energy (DOE) for also planning to raise fees. –Iris C. Gonzales (The Philippine Star)