State subsidies plunge by 65% in July

MANILA, Philippines - Money given by the national government to state agencies hit its lowest in three months in July, pushing down the year-to-date average by 17 percent, data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed.

State subsidies amounted to P2.32 billion in July, 65 percent down from P6.63 billion recorded in the same period last year. The amount was the lowest since April’s P785 million.

The latest figure brought the seven-month tally to P46.29 billion, also down from last year’s P56.17 billion.

Subsidies are given by the government to government-owned and –controlled corporations (GOCCs) as well as government financial institutions (GFIs) to cover for their financing needs during the entire fiscal year.

In turn, GOCCs and GFIs annually remit part of their operating proceeds to national coffers. Subsidies form part of government expenditures, while GOCC remittances are considered state revenues.

Since Aquino administration took over in 2010, subsidies have consistently gone up, except in 2012, the year after Republic Act (RA) 10149 or the GOCC Governance Act of 2011 was enacted. The law established the Governance Commission for GOCCs which now oversees the state companies’ operations.

From 2012 to 2013, subsidies increased 55.6 percent, while from 2013 to 2014, it went up by 21.27 percent, Treasury data showed.

In July, only seven out of 38 GOCCs were given subsidies. The highest was received by the National Electrification Administration, which got a total of P1.22 billion. It was followed by Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. with P345 million.

The other agencies that received subsidies and their corresponding amounts were the National Irrigation Commission (P276 million), National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (P250 million), Philippine Rice Research Institute (P144 million) and Quedan Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. (P43 million).

For the first seven months, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. topped the list of subsidy receivers with grants reaching P32.59 billion, cornering 70 percent of aggregate disbursements. It was followed by National Food Authority at far second with P4.25 billion.

In his State of the Nation Address in 2010, President Aquino castigated some GOCCs for giving out large bonuses and perks to their officials and employees, while underperforming on generating revenues for the government.

This led to the passage of RA 10149 in June 2011.