and ANGELA CELIS
PRESIDENT Duterte has approved a wage subsidy program for middle class workers and small and medium scale businesses affected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles announced on Tuesday.
Nograles, concurrent spokesman of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), said the President on Monday night approved the Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) which is expected to benefit some 1.6 million small businesses and their 3.4 million employees.
Nograles workers eligible to avail of the subsidy must be employed as of March 1 this year and have not received their pay for that month, while retrenched workers, those who have resigned or are on leave and employees who have availed of unemployment benefits are not qualified for the program.
Under the program, the eligible workers will be given a cash aid of P5,000 to P8,000 to be computed based on the minimum daily wage rates in their respective regions. The subsidy will be given in two tranches in May.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, in a statement, said the SBWS will be for two months and will cost a total of P50.8 billion. Under the program, small businesses are defined as those not belonging to the top 2,745 large taxpayers of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
Unlike Nograles who already announced those eligible and not eligible to avail of the subsidy, Dominguez said details, mechanics and eligibility criteria under the program will be announced this week.
The DOF said the wage subsidy program will benefit 2.6 million workers whose employers are compliant with BIR and Social Security System (SSS) regulations and thus can be easily identified and automatically processed for coverage if they are eligible.
The program will also support another 800,000 workers whose employers are not fully compliant with the SSS or BIR as the DOF said that the government understands that the non-compliance may have been caused by inadvertent mistakes on the part of the employer.
“As you can imagine, it will be very tedious as we will have to verify individual claims. As you are also aware, any delay cannot be blamed on the government but rather is a result on non-compliance with the law and regulations,” the finance chief said via Viber.
Nograles said the subsidy will be deposited to the bank accounts of the workers or via their SSS Unified Multi-Purpose ID cards, electronic wallets and remittance centers.
Karl Kendrick Chua, DOF undersecretary, said: “Apart from the P205 billion that the government is giving to the informal sector, or those with low-income, we are giving P51 billion to the employees of small businesses. We will improve upon the social amelioration program because this plan to give the subsidy is automated, not manual, so (it will be) faster.”
Chua said the distribution of the wage subsidy will also be better targeted because those who are registered with the SSS and BIR are easily identifiable and eligibility under the program can be determined quickly. He also said bank and e-wallet accounts can also be registered with the SSS for the efficient disbursement of subsidies.
The program also aims to incentivize better compliance in registering with the BIR and SSS “because these workers are the ones who would be first covered by the subsidy,” Chua said.
To avoid duplication, beneficiaries of the COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program of the Department of Labor and Employment who already received P5,000 will only be eligible for a one-month wage subsidy, Chua added.
The subsidy amount will be aligned with the emergency subsidy given to the informal sector, except that the P8,000 per month estimated for all eligible workers in Metro Manila, will also cover Regions III (Central Luzon) and IV-A (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Quezon area).
“The reason for this is that there are many workers who live in one region and work in another region,” Chua said.
GOVERNMENT GUARANTEE
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the government is also providing credit guarantee to small businesses under the net operating loss carry over (NOLCO), to enable the small business to access bank financing more easily.
“The government would guarantee the loans for small and medium enterprises. The government would provide a guarantee of up to P60 billion,” Roque said in Filipino.
He said the NOLCO program also provides the borrower five years to pay the loan to give them time to recover their losses due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
DOF records show that some 436,300 small businesses were forced to stop operations while some one million are only able to operate with skeleton forces after the national government placed Metro Manila and, later, the rest of Luzon, under the ECQ to stop the further spread of COVID-19.
Only around 117,666 essential small businesses such as those involved in food service, logistics and some retail outlets like drugstores and supermarkets, have been allowed to operate since the ECQ was carried out, he said.
PROVINCIAL EFFORTS
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said it has released P6.197 billion to cover the national government’s funding requirements for the one-time financial assistance to provinces.
The DBM said in a statement that the released amount is equivalent to half of the one-month 2020 internal revenue allotment share of 81 provinces nationwide.
The agency has already released P30.8 billion to cover the funding requirements for the one-time financial assistance to cities and municipalities.
As provided in Local Budget Circular No. 126, dated 13 April 2020, the Bayanihan Grant to Provinces (BGP) shall be exclusively used for specific purposes subject to existing procurement, budgeting, accounting and auditing rules and regulations.
The fund can be used to augment funding requirements for the operation of provincial, district, and other local hospitals operated by the provincial government for COVID-19-related expenses, specifically the following: procurement of personal protective equipment; equipment, reagents, and kits for COVID-19 testing; medicines and vitamins; hospital equipment and supplies; disinfectants, sprayers, and other disinfecting supplies and misting equipment.
The funds can also be used as well for food, transportation (including fuel), and accommodation expenses of medical/health workers and other personnel of the provincial, district, and other local hospitals operated by the provincial government; expenses for the construction/repair/lease/rental of additional space/building to accommodate COVID-19 patients and persons under monitoring/investigation; expenses for training of medical/health personnel of the provincial, district, and other local hospitals operated by the provincial government relative to the conduct of COVID-19 testing and other related trainings; and other necessary COVID-19-related expenses of the provincial, district, and other local hospitals operated by the provincial government.
It also covers the operation and maintenance of duly established provincial checkpoints related to COVID-19, such as provision of foods, medicines/vitamins, personal protective equipment, and disinfecting supplies for the exclusive use of provincial government employees and personnel concerned, including those hired under contract of service and job order schemes.
“The one-time BGP is intended to support the ongoing efforts of the government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of the BGP for the specified purpose shall augment, and not duplicate, the funds allocated for national government agencies like the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, among others,” the DBM said.
“The released amount for BGP shall be used by the recipient provinces for the duration of the State of Calamity as declared by the President by virtue of Proclamation No. 929 dated 16 March 2020. Funds which remain unutilized after the lifting of the State of Calamity shall be reverted to the National Treasury by the recipient cities and municipalities,” it added.
