Solon proposes P200-k fine for malls collecting fees for toilet use

For the chair of the House committee on Metro Manila Development, using the restroom inside malls and shopping centers should not come at a price for shoppers.

 

Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo has filed House Bill 5225 seeking to ban the collection of fees from customers for using toilets or restrooms inside shopping malls.

 

Under the proposed “Free-Use Policy for Ancillary Service Act of 2014,” the use of toilets or restrooms by customers in malls, shopping centers, and similar establishments is prescribed as part of ancillary service that needs to be provided for free use by owners or operators of the business establishments.

 

Should the measure become a law, a fine of P200,000 will be imposed on the operators of malls, shopping centers and similar establishments who would continue to collect fees or token charges for the use of restrooms and toilets.

 

Castelo said toilets and restrooms should be considered necessities that malls are expected to provide in compliance with the existing Building Code, similar to fire exits, elevators and escalators.

 

“It is assumed that no fee will be charged, as there had not been any fee charged for the longest time that malls as business establishments operate for profit,” he said in the bill’s explanatory note.

 

He slammed some malls’ practice of collecting fees from shoppers for the use of restrooms as “grossly inconsiderate and is not in keeping with sound business practice.”

 

The most elementary form of corporate social responsibility is for business to give back to those from whom they have taken much. Without customers, business would close,” Castelo said. 

 

The lawmaker said the practice of collecting fees for the use of restrooms inside shopping malls should be stopped since all all people need a toilet, unlike parking slots, which is an amenity that must be paid for by shoppers who brought their cars to the mall. —NB, GMA News