NEW CAR buyers will not only have to contend with higher automobile prices, they will also have to pay three years' worth of registration at once for their new vehicles.
The Land Transportation Office adopted the new registration scheme in order to collect up front the P1.2 billion it had projected to earn from new car registrations over the next three years.

The registration will be valid for three years, however.

New vehicles covered by the plan would be limited to those purchased from LTO-accredited manufacturers like the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc., the Truck Manufacturers Association and the Motorcycle Development Program Participants Association.

Aside from third-party liability insurance, the scheme requires new car buyers to secure a Department of Environment and Natural Resources certificate of conformity before their vehicles could be registered.

Lovely Quipot, LTO public information officer, said vehicles assembled and
sold by non-LTO-accredited firms would still be registered under the old yearly schedule.

Apart from the added expense, Quipot said the new scheme "will give some peace [of mind] and comfort to car owners because they do not have to go back to us yearly until [after] that third year."

She clarified that there would be no increase in registration fees, except that new car owners would have to pay three years' worth at once.

Under the scheme, new light vehicles would cost P4,800 to register; medium-type vehicles, P10,800; heavy vehicles, P24,000, and motorcycles, P720.

She said there would be no increase in driver's license application fees.