The amount of subsidy the Duterte administration extended to government owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) was slashed by nearly half in November 2021 and bulk of it went only to three state-run companies.
Data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed that financial support extended to government-owned corporations dropped 46 percent to P12.33 billion in November from P22.78 billion in the same month in the previous year.
Among the GOCCs that received a huge portion of the subsidy are: the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) with P3.97 billion; Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) with P2.79 billion; and National Housing Authority (NHA) with P1.66 billion.
Total support given to NIA, BCDA and NHA amounted to P8.42 billion, accounting for more than half or 68 percent, of the government’s subsidy releases during the month.
Other recipients of subsidy were the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., Philippine Fisheries Development Authority, Philippine Crop Insurance Corp., at P903 million, P881 million and P618 million, respectively.
Moreover, the Social Housing Finance Corp. received P524 million subsidy along with the Philippine Heart Center with P172 million, Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines with P108 million and National Kidney and Transplant Institute with P107 million.
In the first 11-months of 2021, state subsidies to government companies reached P163.41 billion, 13 percent lower compared with P187.86 billion in the same period in 2020.
Total financial aid given to GOCCs in 2020 amounted to P229 billion billion.
The smaller subsidy to GOCCs comes as the Duterte administration’s budget shortfall increased at a much slower pace.
The national government incurred a P128.7 billion fiscal gap in November, up by only 0.33 percent compared with P128.3 billion in the same month in 2020.
Based on the Treasury report, the government managed to control the rise in deficit due to better revenues, which accelerated by 15.5 percent from P245.8 billion to P284 billion.
Of that amount, tax haul jumped 14 percent to P270.3 billion from P236.5 billion, while non-tax revenues amounted to P13.7 billion, an increase of 49 percent compared with P9.2 billion a year earlier.
Meanwhile, public spending increased 10 percent in November to P412.7 billion from P374.1 billion. Of that amount, interest payments cornered P31.2 billion, up 56 percent year-on-year from P20 billion.
The November budget deficit caused the government’s 11-month financing gap to rise by 24.6 percent to P1.332 trillion from P1.069 trillion in the same period last year.
But despite the uptick, the actual budget deficit the government incurred as of November accounted for only 74 percent of the revised P1.8 trillion full-year ceiling.