The Land Transportation Office (LTO) on Thursday, January 18, upped its bid to collect P43 billion revenue this 2024 by urging delinquent vehicle owners to renew their registration and for new owners to register on time.

This year’s revenue collection target was a 28-percent increase from the P31 billion in 2023, marking it historical for being the first time the agency raised its collection goal.

“The revenue target is very high but this is not the first time that we confront what seems to be an impossible task to achieve. Nagawa na natin ito sa ibang bagay, and with our continuous cooperation and hard work, I am sure that we will achieve another milestone by accomplishing this task,” LTO chief Vigor Mendoza said in his speech.

“Even with our limitations, we have to do it together because we have to generate more revenues for our agency, for the national government, and for the Filipino people as a whole,” he added.

The LTO chief explained that the revenue target means imposing initiatives among motorists to be law-abiding citizens and register on-time.

“Kung ako ang tatanungin, ayaw ko na may maraming nahuhuli at mas gusto ko na may pagkukusa taying lahat sa ating obligasyon sa pamahalaan. That is why our main challenge is how to convince our kababayan to do their part in terms of being responsible and law-abiding citizens,” Mendoza said.

He, however, underscored that there were still delinquent motor vehicle owners who refused to register, prompting LTO personnel to apprehend them and teach them a lesson.

“But we know the realities on the ground. Talagang may mga pasaway at mga pilosopo gaya nung mga nagsasabi na bakit kailangang mag-renew ng rehistro kung hindi naman nahuhuli. This is the part that the strict enforcement will come into play. We have to be strict in law enforcement to teach these kinds of people a lesson,” Mendoza added.

The land transportation agency earlier implemented that “no registration, no travel” policy to reduce the backlog of 24.7 million unregistered motor vehicles.