PPA to remit P5B dividends to govt

STATE-RUN Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) on Wednesday said that it was set to remit more than P5 billion in dividends to the National Treasury, the agency’s highest contribution since its creation in 1974.

The PPA board of directors approved a total of P5,057,764,538 as cash dividend, equivalent to 58.25 percent of PPA’s net earnings based on its calendar year 2023 unaudited financial statements.

PPA’s latest dividend for 2023 surpassed all dividends remitted to the government, including its previous record of P4.4 billion in 2022.

After being granted fiscal autonomy, PPA must remit 50 percent of its annual net income to the national government.

Total revenue of P25.44 billion for 2023 was recorded by PPA based on the unaudited figures. This is 23.89-percent or P4.91-billion higher than the 2022 revenue of P20.54 billion.

The PPA has been a consistent top performer among governmentowned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs). In 2023, the agency was recognized as one of the leading dividend contributors among GOCCs in the country, ranking fourth overall with a cash remittance of P4.44 billion.

Based on the data from the Department of Finance (DoF), PPA was the fourth-highest dividend contributor among GOCCs in 2023, even surpassing other GOCCs like the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Philippine National Oil Company, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), and Clark Development Corp., among others.

PPA General Manager Jay Santiago attributed the agency’s recordbreaking figures to the good fiscal management and efficient operations of Port Management Offices nationwide.

“We are again making history with our highest dividend contribution so far. To recall since 2016, we started with dividends of P1.96 billion, and we increased that every year, and now we have over P5 billion. This proves that we mean serious business in PPA, always for the nation,” Santiago concluded.

Over the period of 2016-2023, PPA remitted almost P31 billion in dividends (including the P5 billion dividend due in 2023), marking the highest remittance in decades.

This underscores a trend of increasing dividend hikes by the PPA starting from 2016 with P1.96 billion, followed by P3.10 billion in 2017, P3.52 billion in 2018, a record-high of P5.05 billion in 2019, P3.76 billion during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, a rebound to P4.08 billion in 2021, and the P4.44 billion in 2022.