The national government’s subsidies to government-owned and -controlled corporations in the first nine months of 2023 rose 12.27 percent versus the year ago level, data released by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed.
According to the latest cash operations report, subsidies in January to September 2023 totaled to P137.13 billion, up from the P122.25 billion recorded in the same period a year ago.
The lion’s share of the subsidies released to state-run firms, amounting to P50.61 billion, went to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
The subsidy support to PhilHealth is often allocated for the payment of health insurance premiums of indigent beneficiaries.
Other top recipients as of end-September are the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) with P31.81 billion, National Housing Authority (NHA) with P16.63 billion, National Food Authority (NFA) with P6.02 billion and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. with P5 billion.
In September alone, subsidies to state-firms amounted to P21.26 billion, posting a 10.1 percent decline from the P23.65 billion recorded in the same month a year ago.
NHA received the largest chunk with P11.11 billion.
Aside from NHA, other top recipients for the month include NIA with P2.97 billion, Philippine Crop Insurance Corp with P2.7 billion, National Electrification Administration with P1.37 billion and the NFA with P1.09 billion.
The BTr earlier reported that the national government’s budget deficit as of end-September fell below program by 11.11 percent.
According to the BTr, the fiscal deficit narrowed to P983.5 billion in the first nine months of the year, down by 2.89 percent year-on-year, while also lower than the P1.1 trillion target.
The year-to-date deficit figure is only 66 percent of the P1.5 trillion full-year program which the BTr attributed to higher revenue and lower expenditure performance than programmed for the period.
For the month of September, however, the budget deficit widened to P250.9 billion, higher by 39.6 percent compared to last year’s P179.8 billion.
The fiscal outturn for the period was underpinned by an 8.06 percent year-over-year acceleration in expenditures coupled with an 11.57 percent decrease in government receipts.