The national government’s subsidies to government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) surged in the month of July amid the difference in the timing of releases to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) compared to last year.
Data posted by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) on its website showed that subsidies to state-run firms jumped by 398.78 percent in July to P30.32 billion from P6.08 billion in the same period last year.
PhilHealth accounted for bulk of the amount with P22.46 billion released to the agency in that month.
Prior to July, no releases were made to PhilHealth in the first half of the year.
In comparison, more than P45 billion in releases were already made to PhilHealth in the first seven months of 2021.
The only other billionaire recipient in July was the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) with P5.87 billion.
In the first seven months of the year, subsidy releases to GOCCs totaled to P75.01 billion, 20.51 percent down from the year ago level of P94.36 billion.
NIA received the biggest amount with P24.22 billion.
This was followed by PhilHealth with P22.46 billion, National Housing Authority with P8.94 billion, National Food Authority with P3.38 billion and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority with P2.17 billion.
Meanwhile, the BTr also reported last Saturday that the national government’s total outstanding debt reached P12.89 trillion as of end-July 2022.
It rose by 11 percent from the previous year’s level of P11.61 trillion.
The BTr said the 0.8 percent increase from the end-June 2022 level of P12.79 billion was due to the net issuances of domestic and external loans as well as currency adjustments.
The agency, however, said the debt-to-gross domestic product ratio has improved to 62.1 percent as of end of the second quarter 2022 from the 63.5 percent recorded in the previous quarter as the economy continues to recover from the health crisis.
Of the total debt stock, 31.5 percent was sourced externally while 68.5 percent were domestic borrowings.
The national government’s domestic debt amounted to P8.83 trillion, which is 0.7 percent higher compared to the end-June 2022 level of P8.77 trillion.
For July, the BTr said the increase in domestic debt resulted from the net issuance of government securities amounting to P64.33 billion and the P0.74 billion impact of local currency depreciation against the US dollar.
The national government’s external debt, on the other hand, amounted to P4.06 trillion, 0.8 percent higher than the end-June 2022 level of P3.49 trillion.
“The increment in the level of external debt was attributed to the impact of local currency depreciation against the US dollar amounting to P25.77 billion and net availment of external financing amounting to P6 billion. These were tempered by the P0.75 billion effect of third-currency depreciation against the US dollar,” the BTr said.
