The national government substantially increased the amount of subsidy it extended to government owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) last January, particularly to the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).
Financial support extended to the state-owned companies accelerated in the first month of the year to P2.87 billion from only P11 million in the same month in 2021, data from the Bureau of the Treasury revealed.
The leading GOCC that received a huge portion of the subsidy was NIA with P2.56 billion, cornering 89.2 percent of the total releases during the month.
Philippine Rubber Research Institute, Philippine Coconut Authority, Philippine Postal Corp., and National Dairy Authority, were the other recipients of subsidy at P105 million, P91 million, P43 million, and P18 million, respectively.
Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan, Intercontinental Broadcasting Corp., Philippine Tax Academy, People's Television Network, Inc., Southern Philippines Development Authority and Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority also received aid from the government.
In 2021, total support given to GOCCs amounted to P184.76 billion, down by 19 percent from P229.02 billion in the previous year.
The higher GOCC subsidy in January also pushed up the government’s budget deficit during the month.
Last week, the Treasury bureau reported that the government incurred a P23.4 billion fiscal gap, higher by 66.3 percent compared with P14.1 billion in January last year.
Expenditures amounted to P301.5 billion in January, an increase of P26.7 billion from P274.8 billion a year earlier.
Based on the Treasury data, the uptick in spending was primary driven by interest payments (IP), which jumped 34 percent, or P18.5 billion, to P65.6 billion from P47 billion in the previous year.
IP accounted for 23.57 percent of revenue and 21.74 percent of expenditures, up last year’s 18.04 percent and 17.11 percent, respectively.
Other expenditures, meanwhile, rose 3.6 percent or P8.1 billion from P227.8 billion to P235.9 billion last January.
Government revenue, on the other hand, improved 10.5percent to P278.1 billion from P260.7 billion in January 2021.
Bulk of the total revenue, or 92 percent , was from taxes amounting to P255.3 billion while non tax collections of P22.8 billion made up the remaining balance.