P.R. Laws tit. 9, § 5681
Every owner of a motor vehicle subject to the payment of annual license fees shall pay at any internal revenue office of any municipality, at the place designated by the Secretary of the Treasury, at official inspection stations, banks, or at the place designated by the Secretary, the fees corresponding to the vehicle for each year, as indicated in the notice to be sent by the Secretary to that effect. The fees on such account shall be paid in advance for the whole year or for the remaining portion thereof, and fractions of a month shall be deemed as full months. This provision shall only apply to motor vehicles paying license fees for more than forty dollars ($40) per year. Upon receipt of the corresponding fees, the collector shall issue the motor vehicle license consisting of the notice form issued by the Secretary with the corresponding annotations and the signature of the collector indicating that the fees have been duly paid. Together with the license, the collector shall include the corresponding sticker or license plates, as the case may be. Only one (1) sticker shall be affixed to the motor vehicle during the year of effectiveness of the fees paid.
Owners of inspection stations shall deposit into a special account, so that the Department of the Treasury may make daily transfers of the car inspection stickers thus issued. The Department of the Treasury shall approve regulations for such purposes, on which a bond and insurance shall be required to secure the receipt of the moneys collected from stickers sold. The service charge collected by the inspection station, the bank, or any other place designated by the Secretary of the Treasury, shall not be greater than five dollars ($5).
Vouchers, internal revenue stamps, or any other payment method established by the Secretary of the Treasury shall be used in the case of examination fees, including those for learner’s permits, the issue of license duplicates, the renewal of driver’s licenses, vehicle transfers, and any other collection of fees.
Except as otherwise provided in this chapter the amount of the fees collected in accordance with §§ 5681 and 5682 of this title shall be covered in its entirety into a Special Deposit in the name and for the benefit of the Highways and Transportation Authority.
The Authority is hereby authorized to pledge or encumber the proceeds of the taxes collected for the payment of the principal of and interest on any bonds or other obligation or for any other lawful purpose of the Authority. Such pledge or encumbrance shall be subject to the provisions of Section 8 of Article VI of the Constitution of Puerto Rico. The proceeds of the taxes collected shall be used solely for the payment of the interest on and amortization of the public debt, as provided in Section 8 of Article VI of the Constitution of Puerto Rico, insofar as the other available resources referred to in said Section does not suffice to attain such purposes. Otherwise, the proceeds of said tax, in the necessary amount, shall be used solely for the payment of principal of and interest on the bonds and other obligations of the Authority and to meet any stipulation agreed upon by the Authority to the holders of its bonds and other obligations.
The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico hereby agrees and makes a commitment to any person or agency of the United States of America, of any state or of the Government of Puerto Rico that sell or acquire bonds of the Authority for the payment of which the proceeds of the fees paid for motor vehicle and trailer licenses and others is pledged, as authorized by this section, not to reduce the license fees or the amount collected from the same that the Authority must receive.
In the case the amount collected from the motor vehicle registration fees is used to cover the requirements of the public debt and applied to cover the deficiencies in the amounts needed to satisfy said payments, the amounts used to cover said deficiency shall be reimbursed to the Authority from the first proceeds received in the next or subsequent fiscal years by the Government of Puerto Rico proceeding from the registration of motor vehicles.
The proceeds of the collected fees to be used as provided in this section to reimburse the reserve funds to cover the requirements of the public debt shall not be covered into the General Fund of the Government of Puerto Rico when collected, but shall be covered into the aforementioned Special Deposit for the benefit of the Authority and shall be subject to the provisions of Section 8 of Article VI of the Constitution of Puerto Rico.
The Secretary of the Department of the Treasury may delegate to the Secretary the duty of collecting such fees.
History —Jan. 7, 2000, No. 22, § 24.01; Feb. 19, 2002, No. 37, § 2; renumbered as § 23.01 and amended on June 3, 2004, No. 132, §§ 17, 24; June 30, 2006, No. 116, § 2; June 25, 2013, No. 30, § 1.