Government-owned or -controlled corporations declared dividends of P48 billion in 2018, the highest amount ever collected since the law requiring state firms to hand over 50 percent of their annual net earnings to the national government was enacted in 1994, according to the Finance Department.
The DoF said it was also the first time that dividends breached the P40-billion mark.
It said the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. remitted an additional P6 billion on Dec. 14, which combined with the P34.17 billion collected from GOCCs as of November, raised total remittances for 2018 to a record P40.17 billion. Including Land Bank of the Philippines, which should have contributed P7.82 billion, the amount of GOCC dividends totaled P47.99 billion for 2018.
Finance Undersecretary Antonette Tionko, who heads the DOF-Corporate Affairs Group, said LandBank was allowed to waive its dividend contributions of P7.82 billion to boost its capital requirements, thus bringing the national amount remitted to the Bureau of the Treasury to P40.17 billion.
He said even without LandBank, P40.17 billion still represented the highest amount ever collected from state-owned and controlled firms since the GOCC Dividends Law was implemented 24 years ago.
“This is unprecedented,” Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said.
“The record amount demonstrates the effectivity of Undersecretary Tionko and her team in instilling fiscal discipline among the GOCCs since the Duterte administration took over in 2016,” Dominguez said.
Data from the DOF-CAG showed the dividends totaling P40,178,634,651.87 remitted by GOCCs in 2018 represented a 32-percent growth from the P30.46 billion collected in the previous year.
Covering the period from July 2016 to December 2018, the total cash dividend collections under the Duterte administration reached P70.9 billion, the DOF-CAG said.
A total of 55 GOCCs remitted to the National Treasury as of Dec. 14, 2018. The cash dividend collections from GOCCs in 2018 comprised 15.72 percent of the emerging total non-tax revenues of the government.
PDIC has emerged as this year’s top dividend contributor with a total of P8.844 billion, the DOF-CAG said in its report to the Finance chief.
Among the other top dividend contributors were the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines with P6.224 billion; Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas with P3.637 billion; Philippine Ports Authority with P3.103 billion; Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. with P2.593 billion; Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office with P2.535 billion; Manila International Airport Authority with P2.251 billion; and the National Power Corp. with P1.410 billion.
GOCC dividend contributors for 2018 also included the Alabang Sto. Tomas Development Inc., Apo Production Unit Inc., Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, Bases Conversion Development Authority, Batangas Land Company Inc., BCDA Management Holdings Inc., Cebu Port Authority, Clark Development Corp., DBP Data Center Inc., DBP Leasing Corp. and Development Bank of the Philippines.
Other contributors were Food Terminal Inc., GY Real Estate Inc., Home Guaranty Corp., Kamayan Realty Corp., Laguna Lake Development Authority, LBP Insurance Brokerage Inc., LBP Leasing and Finance Corp., LBP Resources and Development Corp., Local Water Utilities Administration, Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority, Masaganang Sakahan Inc., Metropolitan Waterworks & Sewerage System, National Dairy Authority and National Development Co.
Also included are the National Electrification Administration, National Home Mortgage Finance Corp., National Housing Authority, NDC – Philippine Infrastructure Corp., Partido Development Administration, Philippine Crop Insurance Corp., Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Philippine Fisheries Development Authority, Philippine International Trading Corp., Philippine National Oil Co., Philippine Postal Corp., Philippine Reclamation Authority and Philippine Retirement Authority.
Others were Philippine Sugar Corp., Phividec Industrial Authority, Pinagkaisa Realty Corp., Poro Point Management Corp., PNOC Exploration Corp., Small Business Guarantee Finance Corp., Social Housing Finance Corp., Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and the Sugar Regulatory Administration.
Dominguez earlier attributed the significantly higher dividend remittances this year to the efficient monitoring of GOCCs by the DOF-CAG as well as by finance officials sitting on the boards of these state-run firms.
He the Department of Transportation under the leadership of Secretary Arthur Tugade also helped ensure that GOCCs under the administrative supervision of the DOTr remitted their dividends to the BTr.