The government’s subsidies to government-owned and —controlled corporations (GOCCs) in the first four months of 2020, as well as in April alone, significantly rose from year ago levels, data released by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed.
The lion’s share of the subsidies released to state-run firms went to the Social Security System (SSS), which is one of those in charge of the small business wage subsidy (SBWS) program.
The government, through the SBWS program, provided monthly wage subsidy for two months to eligible employees of small businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The BTr reported that as of end-April, subsides to GOCCs totaled to P70.57 billion, 389.42 percent higher than the year ago level of P14.42 billion. The SSS got P25.5 billion, which it received entirely in April.
Also among the biggest recipients are the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) with P13.58 billion, Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) with P11.14 billion, National Electrification Administration with P11.02 billion and National Food Authority (NFA) with P5.8 billion.
In April alone, subsidies amounted to P34.42 billion, 572.85 percent up from the P5.12 billion posted in the same month in 2019. Aside from SSS, other to recipients include NIA (P4.74 billion), NFA (P2.82 billion), LRTA (P555 million) and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (P161 million).
Rosalia de Leon, national treasurer, told reporters via Viber over the weekend that subsidies were released to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. Monday last week, amounting to over P27 billion.