Dividends from government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) increased more than half in the first seven months of the year, the Department of Finance said in a report.
In its Facebook post, the DOF shared that it collected a total of P95.54 billion from January to July, 52 percent higher than the P63.02 billion collected in the same period last year.
The Land Bank of the Philippines remitted the most to the state coffers during the period, totaling P32.1 billion, followed by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas with P13.2 billion.
Completing the top five contributing GOCCs were the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation with P10.7 billion, Philippine Ports Authority with P5.1 billion, and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, P4.6 billion.
Other top-contributing GOCCs were the Manila International Airport Authority, P3.5 billion; Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, P2.7 billion; Philippine National Oil Company, P2.6 billion; and National Transmission Corporation, P2.2 billion.
Under Republic Act No. 7656, all GOCCs are mandated to declare and remit at least 50 percent of their annual net earnings as cash, stock, or property dividends to the national government.
However, this dividend rate remittance was increased to 75 percent this year as the government opted to look for other ways other than introducing additional tax reforms.
“We are looking for ways to increase revenues without new taxes,” Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto told reporters in April.
A huge chunk of non-tax revenues comes from GOCCs, followed by income, fees, and charges from the Bureau of the Treasury and the privatization of idle state assets.
For this year, Recto said it expects total dividends from GOCCs to be collected by the national government to reach P100 billion by the end of the year.
On the other hand, he said that they aim to double the non-tax revenue collections from around P200 billion recorded last year.
Based on the fiscal program set by the Development Budget Coordination Committee, the government aims to collect P407.493 billion in non-tax revenues by year-end, which is a 113.28 percent increase from the P191.058 billion full-year target in 2023.