Taguig City – Responding to the 2018 Audit Report of the Commission on Audit (COA) which was published in news reports about the alleged uncollected fees and permits in total of P23 million, the Head of Finance Group of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) on Friday clarified that 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.
Out of the said P23 million total of uncollected fees, P11.179 million referred to Inspection Assessments issued by the Support Services Department (SuSD) while another P12,556,220.82 referred to uncollected Administrative Fees from economic zone developers.
“Regarding the P11.179 million Inspection Assessments for Annual Permits for the year 2018, the Finance Group has exerted efforts to collect the unpaid amount from locators. As of June 30, 2019, the FG has collected 78% of the total balance in the amount of P8,647,045.00 and we are collecting the remaining balance,” said PEZA Deputy Director General (DDG) for Finance and Administration J. Porfirio Ll. Yusingco.
According to PEZA rules and regulations of the agency the SuSD or Engineering Department issues Statements of Accounts to applicants for the Annual Permits, which contain the amount fee that the applicant has to pay.
On the other hand, the P12,556,220. 82 are uncollected Administrative Fees from economic zone developers. The Finance Group has already collected P5,478,277.68 or 44%, while efforts to collect the balance is ongoing.
The Finance Group of PEZA Head Office 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 statement of accounts are compliant in payments of Administrative Fees. Only 1 account has yet to comply,” said DDG Yusingco.
DDG Yusingco said that “PEZA is improving its Engineering Permits and Monitoring System (EPAMS) to connect it to the Report of Collections System (ROC). This will close the gap between the assessments issued by SusD and collection by the Finance Group.”
Committed to improve the billing and collection efforts and system of the agency, DDG Yusingco said that “the management has activated a Billing and Collection Unit which will be responsible for collecting outstanding amounts which are due to PEZA.” #