Gov’t reports record dividends from GOCCs

The dividends collected by the government from state-run corporations hit a record P47.99 billion in 2018, the Department of Finance (DOF) said.

In a statement over the weekend, the DOF said remittances from 55 government-owned and/or -controlled corporations (GOCCs) amounted to P40.17 billion as of mid-December last year.

If the P7.82-billion dividends from government financial institution Land Bank of the Philippines were included, the total reached almost P48 billion.

But Finance Undersecretary Antonette Tionko explained that “Landbank was allowed to waive its dividend contributions to boost its capital requirements.”

Landbank’s dividends in 2017 worth P6 billion were also waived as it was recapitalizing.

The P40.17 billion in GOCC dividends remitted to the Bureau of the Treasury in 2018 nonetheless remained the biggest yearly collection since the GOCC Dividend law was implemented in 1994.

Under Republic Act No. 7656, state corporations are mandated to declare and remit at least half of their incomes to the national government as dividends.

Last year’s collection less Landbank’s dividends was also almost a third higher than the 2017 haul of P30.46 billion.

“This is unprecedented. The record amount demonstrates the effectivity of Undersecretary Tionko and her team in instilling fiscal discipline among GOCCs since the Duterte administration took over in 2016,” Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said, referring to the DOF’s corporate affairs group.

From July 2016 to end-2018, the DOF under the Duterte administration collected a total of P70.9 billion in cash dividends from GOCCs.

Last year, GOCCs’ cash dividends accounted for nearly 16 percent of the national government’s nontax revenue.

The GOCCs that remitted the largest dividends included the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (P8.8 billion), Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (P6.2 billion), Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (P3.6 billion), Philippine Ports Authority (P3.1 billion), Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (P2.6 billion), Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (P2.5 billion), Manila International Airport Authority (P2.3 billion) and National Power Corp. (P1.4 billion).