The Land Transportation Office (LTO) said it would need P2.5 billion to produce 18 million new motorcycle plates by next year.
In an online interview on Monday, LTO chief Edgar Galvante said they will use some of the amount to outsource the production of the said plates, particularly for units which were registered in 2017 and earlier.
“If the necessary fund will be given, we think the target could be met because it is not just the LTO plant, which will make the plates but also other suppliers. We estimate about 10 million plates will be outsourced,” Galvante said.
The remaining 8 million plates, which include those registered in 2018 and later, will be produced by LTO’s own manufacturing plant.
Galvante said they already included the P2.5 billion to their budget request.
The LTO official attribute the large backlog of motorcycle plates to the delay in the installation of their robotic equipment due to the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
“Because of the pandemic, the engineers, who were supposed to come from Germany and the Netherlands were not able to arrive, which led to big delay [on the release] of motorcycle plates,” Galvante said.
He noted the backlog in plate production for motorcycles would not affect those for four-wheel vehicles, except for those applying for “replacement plates.”
“We [are] doing this [replacement plate production] with the motorcycle plates,” Galvante said.