THE Department of Finance (DOF) has reported that 51 of 77 government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) have remitted a total of P31.297 billion to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) as of the second week of July this year.
Based on data from the DOF, the dividends recorded by the department’s Corporate Affairs Group (CAG) as of July 12 has already exceed the full-year total of P27.735 billion in 2016 and P30.45 billion in 2017 contributed by GOCCs, and is poised to easily surpass the record of P33.473 billion remitted in 2015.
The dividends amounting to P31.297 billion remitted to the BTr by the GOCCs as of July 12, were also 64 percent higher than the P19.1 billion remitted for the same period last year.
“From January 1 to July 12, we collected more than we collected the whole year of 2017,” Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said. “There will be a turnover to the President of the checks sometime this month.”
From the 51 GOCCs, the top 10 who remitted the highest amounts were the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines with a total of P6.224 billion, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) with P3.103 billion, the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) with P2.844 billion, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) with P 2.593 billion and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) with P 2.535 billion.
The DOF said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas remitted P2.5 billion, the Manila International Airport Authority with P 2.25 billion, Food Terminal Inc. with P963.79 million, Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) with P959.04 million and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) with a total of P905.74 million.
The finance chief attributed the higher collections during this period to the efficient monitoring of GOCCs by DOF-CAG, headed by Undersecretary Antonette C. Tionko, as well as by finance officials sitting on the boards of these state-run firms.
“We [also] have to thank [Transportation] Secretary [Arthur P.] Tugade. He really helped,” he added. The big collections are from the DOTr [Department of Transportation] agencies.”
According to Assistant Secretary Soledad Emilia F. Cruz of CAG, among the GOCCs that have substantially increased their dividend contributions were the Pagcor, whose remittance rose by P1.4 billion; the PCSO which was able to remit for the first time; and the PPA which remitted up to 60 percent of its net profits as of July this year.
Other GOCCs that also remitted dividends were the National Power Corp. (NPC) with P867.13 million; Clark Development Corp. (CDC) with P700 million; PNOC Exploration Corp. with P605.53 million; Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) with P600 million; and the Home Guaranty Corp. (HGC) with P412.49 million.
The Alabang Santo Tomas Development Inc. also remitted dividends to the national coffers as well as the APO Production Unit Inc., Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, Batangas Land Co. Inc., BCDA Management Holdings Inc., Cebu Port Authority, DBP Leasing Corp., GY Real Estate Inc., Kamayan Realty Corp., Laguna Lake Development Authority, LBP Insurance Brokerage Inc., LBP Leasing and Finance Corp., LBP Resources and Development Corp., Local Water Utilities Administration and the Masaganang Sakahan Inc.
The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System Inc., National Dairy Authority (NDA), National Development Co. (NDC), National Electrification Administration (NEA), National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC), National Housing Authority (NHA), NDC-Philippine Infrastructure Corp. (NDC-PIC), Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC), Philippine Reclamation Corp. (PrecA), Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA), Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC), Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC), Philippine Postal Corp. (PPC), Philippine Retirement Authority (PRetA), Philippine Sugar Corp. (Philsucor), PHIVIDEC Industrial Authority (PIA), Pinagkaisa Realty Corp. (PRC), Poro Point Management Corp. (PPMC), Small Business Guarantee Finance Corp. (SBFC), Social Housing Finance Corp. (SHFC) and Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), completed the list.
“We are still expecting from three GOCCs where we have a payment plan for their arrearages. And one is PDIC, that’s substantial, that’s around P6 billion that we are expecting,” Cruz said. “We have from NPC, P500 million plus, and then from SBMA [Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority] around P200 million plus.”
Dominguez told reporters the government is working toward applying a “One Fund Concept” to help ensure better cash management by the GOCCs, meaning that agencies will have to ask the government for funding for programs they want to pursue instead of giving a fixed subsidy. This, he explained, is expected to eliminate the instance of unused funds.
“We want to try the One Fund Concept, everybody has one fund. You need money, you have to ask, not to keep your own. That is efficient cash management,” Dominguez said. “We are not yet there but we are working toward that. So it’s a move toward more efficiency of government cash management.”
Last year dividends remitted by GOCCs to the National Treasury amounted to P30.45 billion, representing a 9.8-percent increase from the previous year’s collections of P27.73 billion.
The 2017 dividend collections exceeded the P27.73 billion remittances in 2016 even if Land Bank of the Philippines’s P6-billion dividends in 2017 were excluded to allow the institution to recapitalize and better serve the increasing development needs of the country. Had these dividends been included, the total GOCC remittances would have reached P36.45 billion last year.
The dividend collections last year came from 53 GOCCs.