Gov’t raises subsidy budget for GOCCs
To 195.5 billion this year
The national government raised by nearly a fifth its spending program for subsidies to stateowned companies for this year, data from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) showed.
Documents from the DBM revealed that funding for government-owned and -controlled corporations’ (GOCCs) subsidies was raised by 18.7 percent this year to R95.47 billion from the previous program of R80.43 billion.
The original subsidy figure is under the 2017 Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing (BESF) data posted on the DBM website.
But despite the upward adjustment, the government’s new subsidy target is still lower by 7.4 percent compared with the R103.19-billion actual spending registered in 2016.
As of end-April this year, the Bureau of the Treasury disbursed R21.81 billion in subsidies to GOCCs, equivalent to 27.11 percent of the original target and 22.84 percent based on the new assumption approved by the inter-agency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC).
Meanwhile, the Duterte administration’s economic managers approved the quarterly subsidy program of the national government for 2017.
Based on the DBCC data, the national government slightly fell short of its R19.88 billion target by 1.1 percent to R19.66 billion in the first-quarter, but the figure increased by more than double compared with R8.24 billion a year before.
For the three-month period ending June, the DBCC programmed R6.79 billion in subsidies to state-owned companies, significantly lower than the actual R28.35 billion disbursed in the same period last year.
Based on the Treasury data, April’s total subsidies amounted to R2.15 billion. To meet the second-quarter goal, the government needs to spend not more than R2.32 billion each month in May and June.
In the third-quarter, the DBCC is estimating the government will release the year’s biggest subsidies as it sets a target of R55.05 billion for the period, up by 20 percent compared with R45.78 billion in the same months in 2016.
Lastly, the Duterte administration is planning to spend R13.76 billion on subsidies during the final three-months of the year, down by 34 percent from R20.81 billion in the fourth-quarter last year.
As of April, the GOCC with the biggest share of financial assistance was the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), receiving R11.35 billion, equivalent to more than half of the total subsidy releases.
In 2016, the national government posted a record spending on subsidies, which was also more than the R70.7 billion target under the BESF for 2016.
During the first six-months of the Duterte administration, the national government spent R66.59 billion on subsidies, higher than former President Benigno S. Aquino III’s R36.6 billion spending in his final six-months in office.
The Philippine Health Insurance Corp., commonly known as PhilHealth, was the biggest recipient of government financial assistance last year with a total funding support of R43.77 billion.