State-run Philippine Ports Authority said Wednesday it recorded a 31-percent increase in net income to a record P7.28 billion in 2019.
It said the figure exceeded by 47 percent the agency’s 2019 income target of P4.941 billion. PPA said combining all the growth percentages in the first three years of the current administration, net income grew at an annual rate of 17 percent, the highest revenue growth percentage in the last 15 years.
“With this strong performance, the PPA again shall be able to help government achieve its goal of giving comfortable lives to every Filipino not only through higher dividend remittance but also through efficient, effective and fast delivery of port services to our stakeholders and port users,” said PPA general manager Jay Daniel Santiago.
The agency said that the port management offices that posted significant positive performance were South Harbor, Batangas, Davao, Surigao and Bataan/Aurora. The positive deviation came mainly from lay-up fees, Ro-Ro fees, domestic dockage fee, pilotage, utilization of the Vessel Traffic Monitoring System and other income.
PPA said total revenues increased by 5 percent last year to P18.352 billion from P17.5 billion in 2018. It said that against the target, it increased by 0.92 percent.
The agency’s total expenses decreased by 15.5 percent to P8.008 billion from the 2018 figure of P9.476 billion with the significant decreases in the repair and maintenance aspect related to land improvement and other financial expenses.
Non-cash expenses also declined by 15 percent to P2.727 billion because of lower amortization of the agency’s intangible assets and other losses.
PPA said it would revisit its first-quarter performance targets in consideration of the current global concerns like the continuing threat of the COVID-19, the exit of Great Britain from the European Union, the West Philippine Sea and safety and environmental concerns.
“Even with the continuing threat of global concerns, ‘business as usual’ is not an option but reducing the risk of these threats coupled with management anchored on best practices and public-service committed government personnel, our gateways connecting to the tourism and trade centers of the world, will remain competitive and responsive to any current global demands,” Santiago said.