PEZA says it reduced uncollected fees from locators to P9.6M in 6 months

The total amount of uncollected permit, inspection and administrative fees from businesses under the Philippine Economic Zone Authority's (PEZA) jurisdiction is now down to P9.6 million after the first six months of the year, the agency said.

PEZA made the announcement on Tuesday in response to a July 10 COA report which revealed that PEZA—the government agency in charge of granting incentives and facilitating business operations in special economic zones—failed to collect P23.7 million in fees from its locators as of December 31, 2018.

“As of June 30, 2019, the investment promotion agency has already collected P14,125,322.68 of the above amount from locator companies and industries. Collection of the balance is ongoing,” PEZA said in a statement.

Out of the said P23.7 million total of uncollected fees noted by state auditors, P11.179 million referred to inspection assessments issued by the Support Services Department (SuSD) while another P12.55 million was uncollected administrative fees from economic zone developers.

Specifically, PEZA Deputy Director General for Finance and Administration J. Porfirio Ll. Yusingco disclosed that of the P11.179 million in uncollected inspection assessment fees, P8.6 million have been collected and that the collection of the remaining balances is ongoing.

On the other hand, the PEZA’s Finance Group has already collected P5.48 million or 44 percent of the P12.55 million uncollected administrative fees from economic zone developers.

Under PEZA’s rules and regulations, the Support Services Department (SuSD) or the Engineering Department issues Statements  of Accounts to applicants for the Annual Permits which contain the amount fee that the applicant has to pay.

The Finance Group of PEZA Head Office, for its part, supervises the collection of administrative fees for 41 economic zones and developers, which include mostly from Central Luzon and CALABARZON regions.

“As of now, 40 out of 41 statements of accounts are compliant in payments of Administrative Fees. Only one account has yet to comply,” Yusingco said.

Likewise, Yusingco assured the public that PEZA is improving its Engineering Permits and Monitoring System to connect it to the Report of Collections System (ROC) which should close the gap between the assessments issued by SuSD and collection by the Finance Group.

In addition, Yusingco said that PEZA the management has activated a Billing and Collection Unit that will be responsible for collecting outstanding amounts which are due to PEZA. — BM, GMA News