Subsidies to GOCCs drop 64% to P1B in April

MANILA, Philippines - State subsidies to its agencies have dropped by more than half in April as lesser institutions also received financial support from the government, data from the Department of Finance (DOF) showed. 

Money granted to government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) dipped 64.25 percent to P1.002 billion in April from P2.803 billion a year ago, according to the state’s cash operations report.

For that month alone, a total of six companies were granted financial help, lower than the nine that benefitted last year.

The National Food Authority— which got the bulk of subsidies for April last year— did not receive any.

Broken down, the Philippine Postal Corp. was the highest recipient last month, cornering more than half of the total at P516 million.

It was followed by the National Irrigation Authority — in charge of the management of the country’s irrigation systems — with P398 million.

The Philippine National Railways got a total of P41 million, while two state-owned medical institutions, the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (P25 million) and the Philippine Heart Center (16 million) also got their share.

At the bottom of the month’s list were the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority, granted P6 million, and the Cottage Industry Technology Center, which got P1 million, figures showed.

For the first four months, GOCC subsidies already went down by more than a third to P5.236 billion from previous year’s level of P7.881 billion.

Subsidies form part of the government’s expenditures, which totaled P153.207 billion last month, up by more than a quarter from previous year’s P122.244 billion.

The Aquino administration has been reducing GOCC subsidies since it took over, following scandals unveiled in some of them that included huge bonuses and perks for most of their top executives.

For instance, in 2012, GOCC assistance decreased by a fifth to P42.1 billion.

On the flipside, GOCCs have been asked to build up their own coffers so that they could remit higher dividends to the national government, which in turn used the funds for public projects.

GOCCs are scheduled to remit their 2012 dividends today.