GOCC subsidies surge 60% in H1
NIA farm irrigation bloats government aid to 158.22 B
State-run National Irrigation Administration (NIA) took up more than one-third of government subsidies to governmentowned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) in the first semester of the year, with the end-June total financial aid disbursement jumped by more than half compared with the previous year.
Total funds released to GOCCs reached R58.22 billion in January to June this year, higher by 59 percent against the R36.6 billion registered in the same period last year, data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed.
The bureau reported the bulk of subsidies disbursed, equivalent to 34.5 percent of the total, went to NIA, an agency responsible for irrigation development in the Philippines.
Last January, President Rodrigo R. Duterte stopped the NIA from collecting the Irrigation Service Fee (ISF) from farmers. There is also a bill pending in Congress seeking to make the agency’s free irrigation program permanent.
Based on the Treasury data, the government provided NIA with a R20.09 billion worth of subsidy in the first sixmonths. In June alone, total state financial aid given to the irrigation agency already reached R5.72 billion.
NIA Administrator Ricardo R. Visaya was quoted earlier expressing hopes the national government will provide additional subsidies for their free irrigation program. Visaya also said they plan to triple NIA’s budget for next year.
Aside from NIA, there were other 36 state-owned companies that received subsidies from the national government at end-June.
Documents showed these GOOCs were the National Housing Authority (R12 billion), Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (R9.26 billion), National Food Authority (R5.2 billion) and Manila International Airport Authority (R3.6 billion).
Also included in the Treasury list were the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (R1.31 billion) and Bases Conversion and Development Authority (R1.25 billion), among others.
Earlier, the inter-agency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) raised by 18.7 percent the government spending program for subsidies to R95.47 billion from the previous ceiling of R80.43 billion.
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.
Based on the DBCC data, the government slightly fell short of its R19.88billion 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.
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.