Manila: The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has deferred to 2025 the imposition of fines on motorists along expressways with no radio frequency identification (RFID) tags or insufficient funds on their accounts. According to the DOTr, the postponement will give operators more time to address faulty RFIDs and other issues in their operations. 'We are extending to January next year the implementation of the penalties, not the whole program of cashless expressways under the Joint Memorandum Circular 2024-001,' DOTr Secretary Jaime Bautista said in a Palace press briefing Monday. 'We are collating inputs from recent consultation meetings with various tollway stakeholders, including information and profiles of violators. This information will be used to make any amendments to the joint memorandum circular,' he added. Bautista affirmed the government's commitment to pursuing 'convenient and traffic-less travels at all expressways using cashless toll exits.' The imposition of fines was supposed to take effe ct starting Sept. 1. It was later moved to Oct. 1 to give time for tollway operators and concerned agencies to fine-tune their operations and conduct a public information campaign. According to the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB), around 100,000 vehicles or 4.8% of motorists still have no RFIDs. Source: Philippines News agency