The National Power Corporation (NPC) has committed to remit an additional P472 million more in dividend remittances for 2016 and another P2.97 billion in arrears for the 2012-2015 period payable in five years, according to the Department of Finance (DOF).
In a report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, the DOF’s Corporate Affairs Group (CAG) said the NPC has agreed to remit P594 million per year, starting this third quarter of 2017 for its unpaid dividends from 2012 to 2015 totaling P2.97 billion, on top of the regular dividends due the national government for the forthcoming years.
Along with NPC’s commitment to pay P472 million in additional remittances which is due this month, the government stands to gain, starting this year and for the next four years, an additional P3.44 billion in revenues that will be spent for infrastructure and social spending, said Undersecretary Antonette Tionko in her report presented during the latest DOF Executive Committee meeting presided by Dominguez.
Tionko, who heads the CAG, said the NPC had remitted P333 million to the national government in May.
“We told NPC that even if we collect they will still be left with sufficient cash for their operations,” Tionko said.
Dominguez said earlier that the DOF’s target is to collect a total of P114 billion in arrears from government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), including the NPC, the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) and Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC).
The bulk of these arrears are due from five GOCCs, namely, the PDIC with unpaid dividends of P46.5 billion; PSALM, P29.87 billion; NPC, P20.66 billion; Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), P6.89 billion; and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), P6.31 billion.
Under Republic Act 7656, GOCCs are required to declare their annual income after tax and other deductions, and to remit 50 percent of their net income to the Bureau of Treasury (BTr).
“There are arrears with PDIC, PSALM, NPC, PCSO and CAAP. But, fortunately we are making progress in these dividends,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez said GOCCs with unpaid dividends have cited legal concerns and poor collections for not having remitted their dues on time.
“Many of these have to do with legal discussions and some of them have to do with the fact that, the collections of PSALM, for instance, is quite low, so they have a lot of receivables and they haven’t moved as quickly as they should have,” Dominguez said.
The PDIC cited its new charter in which it supposedly states that it does not have to pay dividends, while the PCSO said its proceeds should go to its charity fund, he said.
“PDIC is a problem because they say they have a new charter, they are not supposed to pay dividends, and we are saying that first of all we have to divide it. There was a past dividend due and a current dividend due,” the finance chief said.
As of the end of May, total dividend remittances amounted to P18.34 billion. This includes remittances from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC/PNOC-EC), Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), and Clark Development Corporation (CDC) representing dividends on their 2016 net earnings. These GOCCs have no dividends in arrears.
The DBP remitted P2.51 billion, PPA, P1.95 billion, MIAA (P2.2 billion) and PNOC/EC (P656.50 million), PEZA (P622.21 million) and CDC ( P 500 million).
Meanwhile, the PAGCOR remitted P1.18 billion and committed to pay the balance of P1.30 billion within the year, to complete its dividend payment for its 2016 net earnings.
