Recto: P9.1-B in gov’t fees are missing

About P9.1 billion in fees and charges collected by various government agencies last year is "missing," Sen. Ralph Recto revealed yesterday.

Recto, who chairs the Senate ways and means committee, said the funds had not been remitted to the Bureau of Treasury, which is the custodian of all revenues raised from taxes and fees.

He said the treasury received only P12.041 billion in fees paid for driver’s licenses, passports and other documents, while the actual amount collected by agencies amounted to P21.13 billion, or a discrepancy of more than P9 billion.

He said the Bureau of Treasury and another agency under the Department of Finance, the National Tax Research Center, discovered the discrepancy.

"There could be reasons for the shortfall other than reporting differences. The funds could have been either illegally retained by the collecting agency, lost in the banking system or spent on other things," he added.

The Air Transportation Office had the biggest amount of "missing" collections. Out of P2.24 billion collections, it remitted only P786 million to the treasury, or a difference of P1.4 billion.

It was followed by the Land Transportation Office, another agency under the Department of Transportation and Communications. Out of P1.48 billion actually collected, it remitted only P131 million, or a shortfall of P1.35 billion.

Other agencies with fund discrepancies include the National Telecommunications Commission, P1.23 billion actual and P1.401 million remitted; Land Registration Authority, P1.16 billion actual and P638 million remitted; Bureau of Immigration, P1.03 billion actual and P849 million remitted;

Department of Foreign Affairs, P918 million actual and P608 million reported; Securities and Exchange Commission, P866 million actual and P444 million remitted; Bureau of Food and Drugs, P115 million actual and P73 million remitted; and Professional Regulation Commission, P388 million actual and P193 million remitted.

Recto said finance officials should look for the missing funds.

"The almost P10 billion in collected fees and charges could narrow the budget deficit and temper the government’s borrowing binge," he said.