Record-high P230-B NG subsidies to GOCCs

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SUBSIDIES extended by the national government to government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) hit a new record-high in 2020, with Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) receiving the biggest allocation during the pandemic year.

Data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed the national government spent a total of P230.42 billion in subsidies to GOCCs, the highest since 1986 when the government started collecting data. Last year’s amount of subsidies was also 14.3 percent above the national government’s previous record of P201.524 billion in 2019.

Bulk or 57 percent of the subsidies disbursed by the government last year went to other government corporations (P131.425 billion), followed by major non-financial government corporations (P75.23 billion) and government financial institutions (P23.761 billion).

Of the total subsidies released by the government last year, P62.4 billion or 27 percent was cornered by PhilHealth followed by Social Security System (SSS) with P51 billion or 22.13 percent share.

Since 2014, PhilHealth has been the top recipient of government subsidy. Meanwhile, SSS was used as the conduit for releasing the Small Business Wage Subsidy Program aimed at helping the micro, small and medium enterprises amid the economic slowdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. The other big subsidy recipients next to PhilHealth and SSS are National Irrigation Administration (P33.677 billion), Land Bank of the Philippines (P23.298 billion), and National Housing Authority (P18.14 billion).

For December alone, the government released subsidies amounting to P42.56 billion, of which more than half or P23.824 billion went to PhilHealth.

Other government corporations received the majority or 61.7 percent of the subsidies in December amounting to P26.23 billion. The remaining amount was shared by government financial institutions (P13.298 billion) and major non-financial government corporations (P3.031 billion).

The national government provides subsidies to state-run firms to fund operations not covered by the corporate revenues or to finance specific programs or projects.