The government has enough revenues to fund the financial assistance for Metro Manila residents who will be affected by the upcoming lockdown, the Department of Finance (DOF) said.
Carlos Dominguez, DOF secretary, told reporters in a text message there would be sufficient funds to cover the funding requirements for cash assistance for those in the National Capital Region, which will undergo enhanced community quarantine from August 6 to 20 amid the threat brought by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) delta variant.
“We were informed that the amount required is about P12 billion and we have indicated that we have sufficient excess revenue to cover this,” Dominguez said.
He said the excess revenues will come from dividends remitted by government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs).
Dominguez was also asked if a portion of the budget for infrastructure can be realigned instead for the COVID-19 response, to which he said there was “no need for any realignment at this point.”
In April, the DOF proposed to hike the mandated dividend remittances of GOCCs to the national treasury, to raise more funds for the country’s economic recovery amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the DOF’s proposed amendments to the Dividend Law, all GOCCs shall declare and remit at least 75 percent of their annual net earnings, instead of 50 percent.
Also, the dividends to be remitted to the national government are proposed to be only in cash, with the option that it be in the form of stocks or property to be removed.
The proposal also mentions that additional dividends may be collected out of accumulated earnings.
The DOF’s proposed amendments to the Dividend Law cover net earnings of GOCCs starting 2020.
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) recently remitted P2 billion to the Bureau of the Treasury as additional advance cash dividends. This increases the agency’s total cash dividend contributions to P5 billion.
Pagcor said its latest remittance was in response to the request of Dominguez that it remits P5 billion cash dividends in support of the government’s revenue generation effort.
