Subsidy for small businesses hits P10.1 billion

MANILA, Philippines — More than 1.2 million employees of small businesses have so far received cash subsidies amounting to P10.1 billion under the first tranche of the government’s Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) program, the Department of Finance (DOF) said yesterday.

Citing a report from the SBWS inter-agency task force, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said P10.1 billion worth of wage subsidies have been credited to the beneficiaries from April 30 to May 6, 2020.

“The first tranche of subsidies has been credited to a total of 1.26 million beneficiary employees as of May 6. The amount of P10.1 billion has been deposited to the employees’ bank or PayMaya accounts and sent to MLhuillier, for those who chose to receive the subsidy via money remittance,” Dominguez said.

Approximately 183,677 more beneficiaries were expected to receive their cash aid by May 7, Dominguez added.

The SBWS inter-agency task force is chaired by the DOF, represented by Finance assistant secretary Antonio Lambino, with Social Security System (SSS) president and chief executive officer Aurora Ignacio, and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) deputy commissioner Arnel Guballa as members.

According to the finance chief, the government was able to distribute the wage subsidies in a short amount of time by utilizing automated systems.

“The SSS has partnered with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to automate the payout of the subsidy, which has allowed the distribution to scale up in a short span of time,” he said.

Ignacio, for her part, reported that more than 101,400 employers have submitted their applications for the SBWS program as of May 7, at 7 a.m. Employers had until yesterday, May 8 to apply for the program.

She said applications for around 2.2 million employees have already been approved.

“This represents around 65 percent of the program’s target of 3.4 million beneficiary employees,” Ignacio said.

The government launched the P51 billion SBWS program as part of its efforts to support vulnerable groups and individuals adversely affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The program particularly focuses on employees of small businesses who were affected by work stoppages resulting from the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon, and similar quarantine measures in other parts of the country.

Under the program, 3.4 million workers employed by small businesses will receive cash aid for two months. These subsidies range from P5,000 to P8,00o per month per employee, depending on the minimum wage level in the region where the workers are employed.

The DOF said payouts for the second tranche of the program are scheduled for May 16 to 31.