THE Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) said its net income fell 25 percent to P2.5 billion in first quarter from P3.3 billion in the same period last year due to the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in all aspects of its operations.
PPA said income in March plunged 79 percent to P300 million from P1.401 billion in the same period last year with 16 days of the month covered by the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Luzon.
Jay Santiago, PPA general manager, said the low net income registered in March and subsequently the first quarter of the year was primarily because of the effects of the COVID-19 dating back when China first imposed a lockdown on Jan. 23, 2020 and eventually the government’s imposition of the Luzon-wide ECQ from March 15 up to the present.
“As early as January, there has been a slowdown in the movement of cargo as China, being the location of several transshipment hubs and a number of large manufacturing firms, has imposed necessary restrictions to control the spread of the dreaded disease,” Santiago said.
Only fees coming from Manila North Harbour Port Inc. registered a positive deviation of 3.75 percent while the fees from International Container Terminal Services Inc. and Asian Terminals Inc. declined 8 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
“Other countries, including the Philippines followed suit, thus, justifying the negative effect of the same in almost all areas of our revenue sources,” Santiago said.
PPA’s total revenues for the first three months decreased by 17 percent to P3.8 billion from P4.5 billion registered in the same period last year. For March, revenues fell 59 percent to P726.64 million from P1.773 billion.
All revenue sources of the agency registered negative performances for the period.
From PPA’s revenue sources for the quarter, the hardest hit are the fees coming from its vessel lay-up operations, which went down by 71 percent followed by storage that decreased by 57.42 percent and arrastre and stevedoring now down by 41 percent. For March, hardest hit include lay-up fees, storage fees and share from the Terminal Appointment Booking System or TABS.
“Hopefully, with the relaxation of some restrictions on trade, we will be able to arrest the downward trend in the next couple of months particularly when the country is already able to lift its restrictions on some trade and commercial processes,” Santiago added.
Last month, PPA has remitted at least P5 billion in dividends to the national government to help in the country’s fight against COVID-19. The amount remitted is by far the highest dividend registered in the 45 years of existence of the agency.
PPA is mandated to remit at least 50 percent of its net income to the national coffers annually.
