STATE subsidies to government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) as of September stood at P62.21 billion.
With three months to go before the fiscal year ends, this figure is already only P4 billion short of the total subsidies given by the government to GOCCs in 2013 at P66.33 billion.
This is despite the efforts of the government to close down dormant or nonperforming GOCCs, which since 2011 has resulted in the abolition of 20 GOCCs and the classification of another 20 more as inactive or non-operational.
For September, the total subsidies given by the government amounted to P2.97 billion, a bulk of which went to the National Housing Authority (NHA), which got P613 million in subsidies. The NHA also ranks among the biggest recipients of subsidies for the whole nine-month period, with subsidies received amounting to P9 billion.
The biggest recipient of subsidies for the year remains to be the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., which received P35.31 billion for the payment of insurance premiums of indigent Filipinos.
Other GOCCs which received big subsidies from the government include the National Food Authority (P4.3 billion); National Electrification Administration (P3.57 billion); Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (P2.79 billion), and the Philippine Coconut Authority (P1.35 billion).
In terms of classification, the “major non-financial government Corporations” were subsidized for the period of January to September in the amount of P17.84 billion, while “other government corporations” got P44.37 billion.