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By Chino S. Leyco Reporter
REMITTANCES to the national
government made by government owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs)
and government financial institutions (GFIs) nearly doubled at
end-November, the Department of Finance said.
Finance Undersecretary Jeremias
N. Paul Jr. said that GOCCs and GFIs remitted P34.49 billion in the
first 11 months of the year, higher than the P18.81 billion in the
same period last year.
“These composed of guarantee
fee, interest advance, [national government] shares, dividends and
income received from GOCCs like Pagcor, Manila International Airport
Authority,” Paul told reporters.
National government’s share in
GOCCs income reached P10.87 billion, while GFIs turned in
P8.87-billion worth of dividends, P3.45 billion in interest advances
and P9.3 billion in guarantee fees.
Paul said the department also
collected P1.71 billion from accelerated arrears last month.
“But our program for the
guarantee collection for 2007 is only P1.9 billion,” he said.
Dividends paid by the Bangko
Sentral ng Pilipinas amounted to P2.5 billion. This was followed by
the Philippine National Oil Co. at P2.2 billion; Philippine Port
Authority, P1.37 billion; and Land Bank of the Philippines, P1
billion.
Under Republic Act 7656 or the
Dividends Law of 1994, GOCCs and GFIs are required to remit half or
50 percent of the income earned in each fiscal year to the national
government. The remittance should be in the form of cash or in
unencumbered or real-estate properties with clean titles.
The Philippines had been hard
pressed raising revenues due to weaker than programmed collections
by the Bureaus of Internal Revenue and of Customs. GOCCs and GFIs
had been ordered to voluntarily increase their dividend remittances
to the national coffers.
Last month, the government
enjoyed its biggest budget surplus of P54.1 billion, largely due to
the proceeds from the sale of state assets, without which it would
have ended that month in the red.
Guarantee fee eyed
from PNOC-EDC
Paul also said the government
expects to collect at least a billion pesos by 2010 due to a
sovereign guarantee fee imposed on the new private owner of
Philippine National Oil Co.–Energy Develop-ment Corp. (PNOC-EDC).
He said the government may
collect P1 billion to P1.8 billion, after a decision to raise its
guarantee fee to 2 percent and another 0.25 basis point every year
thereafter from the existing 1 percent.
“This is the net present value
[and] the bulk of it will be paid in 2010. After that will be
minimal. Essentially, 80 percent of the loans will be paid by
2010,” Paul told reporters.
The sovereign guarantee will
provide First Gen Corp. and its partner more time to settle the
nearly P25 billion in obligations of PNOC-EDC that will mature until
2026.
To date, the country’s largest
geothermal energy producer’s loans amount to P24.750 billion,
including liabilities to the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and
the Miyazawa Fund.
“This is a continuing
guarantee. We’re not issuing a new guarantee. We’re just
continuing contractual obligations to the entities that we have
guaranteed,” Paul said.
Antonio Cailao, PNOC president,
earlier said the Department of Justice favored extending the
guarantee to the winning bidder of PNOC-EDC to make it more
attractive to bidders.
PNOC-EDC was auctioned recently
with Red Vulcan Holdings Corp., led by First Gen, declared the
winning bidder after it offered P58.5 billion, 25 percent higher
than the P45-billion reserve price of the government.
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