GOCC subsidies decline to P5 B in August

MANILA, Philippines — The national government granted P5.037 billion in subsidies to government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) last August, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) reported.

According to the latest cash operations report of the BTr, subsidies to state corporations in August declined by 17.22 percent from P6.085 billion recorded in the same month in 2017.

Despite this, year-to-date subsidies still rose 29.67 percent to P105.251 billion as of end-August from the P81.17 billion in the same period last year.

The national government provides financial support to GOCCs to cover funds for their programs and projects, as well as other operational expenses.

Based on Treasury data, the largest subsidy last August was given to the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), which amounted to P2.392 billion. NIA is in charge of implementing irrigation projects all over the country, as well as providing free irrigation to small farmers.

 NIA was followed by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), which received P2 billion in subsidies. This is to support PhilHealth’s efforts to increase its coverage to include indigent families.

The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) also received P233 billion in subsidies, while the Philippine Heart Center and the Philippine Children’s Medical Center were provided P72 billion and P65 billion, respectively.

Also included in the list of GOCCs which received subsidies last August were the Philippine Rice Research Institute (P51 million), National Kidney and Transplant Institute (P49 million), Lung Center of the Philippines (P41 million), Philippines Sugar Corp. (P32 million), Philippine National Railways (P29 million), Cultural Center of the Philippines (P26 million), Philippine Institute for Development Studies (P11 million), Philippines Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (P10 million), among others.

On a year-to-date basis, the highest subsidy as of end-August went to the PHIC, with a total amount of P44.892 billion.

This was followed by NIA with P20.97 billion and the Land Bank of the Philippines with P19.33 billion.

Subsidies to GOCCs form part of the national government’s expenditures.

Last year, subsidies rose 27.04 percent to P131.09 billion from the P103.19 billion recorded the previous year. This is slightly below the programmed GOCC subsidies last year, which was set at P135.51 billion.

For this year, the national government is programmed to release P162.55 billion in subsidies to GOCCs, almost 24 percent higher than the end-2017 level.