5 toll hike petitions still awaiting gov’t nod

Toll hike petitions filed by operators of five major expressways in the country continue to await state approval, delaying long-overdue increases in fees that are supposed to allow private investors to recoup their investments in public infrastructure.

Most of these applications have been pending for more than a year now but have been held back by procedural lapses, putting into question the Aquino administration’s ability to meet its commitments without running aground due to predictable legal issues.

Operators of the Metro Manila Skyway, Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (Star) and Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) applied for adjustments in toll in 2011. The adjustments were supposed to take place in January of 2012.

In 2012, private toll road operators of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) and the Manila Cavite Toll Expressway, also known as the Coastal Road, likewise asked for the authority to hike tolls.

“None (have been approved) yet,” Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said in a text message last week.

“Public hearings still have to be concluded,” he added.

The Toll Regulatory Board (TRB), the agency supposed to act on toll adjustment applications, is under the Department of Transportation and Communications’ (DOTC) supervision.

Abaya said he was not privy to the exact details of the proceedings. The toll hikes for the Skyway, Star Toll and the SCTEx were earlier blocked by lawyer Ernesto Francisco, who questioned the TRB’s approval process for all toll roads.

Private toll road operators are allowed to implement periodic adjustments in their tolls to cover the cost of inflation. However, the adjustments, which are included in the companies’ concession contracts with the government, still need the TRB’s approval.

Earlier, Abaya said the government might soon start subsidizing the operations of privately run toll roads—a move that could cost taxpayers, including non-users of the said roads, billions of pesos yearly—in line with efforts to boost investor confidence in the administration’s infrastructure program.

“To have a more predictable business environment, the government can decide that whatever portion of scheduled fare increases is not implemented can be covered in the form of state subsidies,” he said in November.