The government is on track to meeting its dividend collection targets after the remitted dividends of state-run firms and financial institutions grew 45 percent from the January-to-May period this year, the Department of Finance (DOF) reported on Wednesday.
The DOF, in a news statement, reported that dividend collections from government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) rose to P38.9 billion in the January-to-May period in 2019, from P26.8 billion in the same period for 2018.
The DOF said the dividend collections in the first five months in 2019 were only 3 percent shy of the government’s full-year target this year. A total of 46 GOCCs remitted dividends as of May 16 this year.
“Given this robust trend in the first five months of the year alone, the 2019 dividend collections will easily surpass the previous year’s figures, setting the stage for a new unprecedented amount of dividend contributions from GOCCs,” Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said.
The total cash dividend collections under the Duterte administration now amounts to P109.8 billion between July 2016 to May 2019, according to the the DOF’s Corporate Affairs Group (CAG),
Dominguez attributed the significantly higher dividend remittances under the Duterte administration to the efficient monitoring of, and fiscal discipline instilled to GOCCs by the DOF-CAG, as well as by other finance officials sitting on the respective boards of these state-run firms.
“The Department of Transportation [DOTr], under the leadership of Secretary Arthur P. Tugade, also helped ensure that GOCCs under the administrative supervision of the DOTr remitted their dividends to the BTr,” Dominguez said.
In her report to Dominguez during a recent DOF Executive Committee (Execom) meeting, Finance Undersecretary Antonette Tionko said the dividend collections of P38.9 billion from January to May 16 this year was 45 percent higher than the 2018 collections of P26.8 billion for the same period.
Tionko, who heads the DOF’s CAG, said a total of 46 GOCCs remitted dividends as of May 16 this year. She said the highest dividend contributor as of May 16 this year was the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. with P16.17 billion; followed by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. with P4.58 billion; and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas with P4 billion.
The rest of the Top 10 dividend contributors from January 1 to May 16 this year were the Philippine Ports Authority at P3.51 billion; Manila International Airport Authority, P3.42 billion; National Power Corp., P842 million; and Clark Development Corp., P815 million.
Data from the Bureau of the Treasury also showed that other top dividend contributors included the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, P744 billion; Philippine National Oil Corp. – Exploration Corp., P699 million; and Philippine Economic Zone Authority, P650 million.
GOCCs are required to declare and remit at least half of their income as dividends to the national government, under Republic Act 7656.