The Department of Finance on Monday proposed to increase the mandated dividend remittances of government-owned and -controlled corporations to the National Treasury from 50 percent to at least 75 percent of their net earnings.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said during the Sulong Pilipinas 2021: Partners for Progress forum held online the proposal aimed to raise more funds for economic recovery.
“We are proposing GOCCs to remit dividends of at least 75 percent of their net income to the government from the present 50 percent…,” Dominguez said in a panel discussion.
Dominguez said the government would keep intact its huge budget for infrastructure development under President Rodrigo Duterte’s centerpiece “Build, Build, Build” program as the high multiplier effect of infrastructure spending would make it the main driver of rebuilding the economy.
The DOF said earlier about P119.1 billion or three-fourths of the P157 billion in cash dividends remitted by GOCCs in 2020 partly funded the social amelioration program that the government implemented to ease the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the poorest households and other vulnerable sectors.