State firms give P129B for COVID-19 response

State-run corporations have remitted P129.45 billion to the Bureau of the Treasury as of last week to help finance the government’s huge funding needs in addressing the socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement on Tuesday (May 5), the Department of Finance’s (DOF) corporate affairs group led by Finance Undersecretary Antonette C. Tionko said that government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) remitted P91.62 billion at the start of implementation of the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act on March 24 until April 29.

The DOF said that these were the biggest collections from GOCCs during a five-week period.

Prior to the Bayanihan law, GOCC remittances to the Treasury—only dividends—amounted to just P37.83 billion from Jan. 1 to March 23.

Under RA No. 7656 or the GOCC Dividend Act, state-run firms had been mandated to declare and remit at least half of their incomes to the national government as dividends.

But to shore up money to be collected for COVID-19 response, the Bayanihan law also required GOCCs to remit national government advances as well as unspent subsidies and payments of guarantee fees.

Of the total GOCC remittances received by the Treasury so far, the bulk, or P121.75 billion, were cash dividends.

To date, the top sources of dividend contributions were the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), with P37.84 billion; the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC), P17.9 billion and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) as well as the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza), P12 billion each.

Edited by TSB