TIEZA launches online travel tax payment system

TIEZA Chief Operating Officer and General Manager Pocholo Paragas conducts demonstration of the Online Travel Tax Payment System (OTTPS) during its launch at Double Dragon Plaza in Pasay City Monday. (PNA photo)

MANILA — Long queues in airports are now expected to be reduced as passengers will now be able to pay their travel taxes online.

Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) together with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and the DBP Data Center Inc. (DCI) launched on Monday the Online Travel Tax Payment System (OTTPS) in Pasay City.

The OTTPS is an online payment portal designed to provide a more convenient way of paying travel taxes.

“We want to ensure efficient and hassle-free payment of travel taxes through the OTTPS,” TIEZA Chief Operating Officer and General Manager Pocholo Paragas said during the event.

“Through the OTTPS, passengers have the option to pay their travel taxes online instead of lining up at the airports and travel tax centers,” Paragas added.

Among those present at the launch were TIEZA OIC-ACOO for Administration and Finance Sector Atty. Joy Bulauitan, DBP Chairman Alberto Romulo, DBP President and Chief Executive Officer Cecilia Borromeo and DCI Senior Business Development Manager Arnel Celis.

Through the OTTPS, travel taxes may now be paid through local and international credit cards; debit cards; ATM; Over the Counter (OTC non-bank channel partners) channel partners such as San Mig Food Avenue, Petron Corporation, Total Philippines Corporation, H Lhuillier Pawnshop, Tambunting Pawnshop Inc., Shopwise and Wellcome supermarkets, among others; electronic payment kiosks and mobile wallets.

Passengers may create their account through https: //traveltax.tieza.gov.ph and pay their travel tax through the website.

Travel tax is a levy imposed by the Philippine government on individuals who are leaving the country irrespective of the place where the air ticket is issued and the form or place of payment as provided for by Presidential Decree 1833.

TIEZA, formerly known as the Philippine Tourism Authority, is an attached agency of the Department of Tourism which administers the collection of the Philippine Travel Tax.

The agency is also mandated to provide support infrastructures and facilitate investments in tourism enterprise zones nationwide.