Luxe tax

Second car tax.

That's the new proposal of our government. Fresh into its mandate, the new Transport secretary, Arthur Tugade, is pondering the idea of collecting higher registration fees and taxes on citizens purchasing second cars.

I guess the road congestion is getting from bad to horrendous.  Before hitting intolerable, however, the idea driving this proposal must be to discourage cash-rich Filipinos from acquiring yet another status symbol, and ultimately declogging the streets.

As a single person, I would probably accept the fact that I really only need one car to get around.  What I cannot accept, however, is the logic that if I have two cars, I am contributing to the clogging of our streets.

You know, friends always think I am harsh when I use that tele-talk punctuation: "hello"!  Well, I'm not being harsh. I'm just punctuating. To the proponents of this idea and the rationale propelling the idea: Hello!

If I am using the first car, then it must necessarily follow that the second car is safely tucked away at home.  Not being used, not taking up space on our busy streets. How then can preventing me from acquiring the second car help declog the streets?  Erm, hello?

What if my second car had to be situated in another city or province?  What If I were bi-coastal, with presence in both Bacolod City and Batangas City, locations that are 400 miles apart and separated by seas and islands, and I needed cars in both cities? Should I be taxed?  Necessarily, if I am driving to my favorite sweet shop in Bacolod ready to load up on cholesterol and sugar, my car in Batangas would not be interfering with beach-bound babes on their way to sun and sand.

And if perchance I was innovative, and I hired another person to chauffeur my car around for Uber-purposes, wouldn't it actually be helping solve the dire transport crisis that we have, and at the same time giving employment to someone who would otherwise be idle?

Let's say I am not a single person, but a couple with separate jobs and children to be ferried across different parts of the city.  If I buy a car for my partner, so we are able to take separate journeys through the metropolis, why tax me for enabling us to make a living and ensuring our kids get their education?  Of course, we won't even get to answer that question in this scenario, since any enterprising Filipino will just make sure that partner dearest buys the supposed second car and puts it in his or her name as his or her first vehicle. Problem solved.

I would totally understand if the measure is to raise revenues for our Finance department.  But as a declogging measure, this is a fail.

Tax luxury cars, for sure. We don't need more Porsches and Jaguars. Those aren't necessities.  Make it real painful to acquire Rolls Royces and Ferraris.  Perhaps, taxing second cars would even be justified - if the justification was precisely this, that most citizens don't need two cars and having a second is a luxury enjoyed by only a privileged few.  That might convince me.  But to sell this idea on the basis that this will ease traffic?

There are other ideas that have been floating around for easing congestion that have yet to be adopted.  I heard that those with no parking spaces but instead use public roads to park their cars would slowly be levied with public parking fees.  Now that's a wonderful idea, although it does burden those with less means on a disproportionate basis.

Advanced cities also impose fees for entering business districts or the most congested areas at peak hours, so that is a measure that could be easily adopted in the Philippines.  Basically, this means those with no business hanging around in the business district should just avoid going there.

Rerouting of large buses?  Opening private roads? Attracting businesses away from the center and relocating non-essential government offices to the fringes?

I think providing safe and reliable mass transport alternatives to car riders would be the best solution, but we are light years away from that ever happening. (Will I still be alive when this actually happens?)

Plenty of solutions proposed, but none as yet adopted. I'm so looking forward to what this new administration will finally do.  (Just as long as the logic behind is impeccable.)