The Department of Finance (DoF) expects to collect as much as P19 billion as dividend payments from government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) and financial institutions (GFIs) on their 2009 income.

DoF Secretary Margarito B. Teves said this was the number that they are hoping to get as dividends which would help plug the emerging budget deficit of P300 billion for 2009, equivalent to 3.8 percent of gross domestic product.

“We didn’t raise funds from privatization (last year) so these remittances from GOCCs and the government banks will provide much-needed cash,” explained Teves. Dividend payments are considered non-tax revenues under “fees and charges.” The DoF expects fees and charges to reach P60 billion for 2009 and P55 billion for this year.

Teves said they have indicated to GOCCs and GFIs to advance dividends as soon as possible to ensure the budget shortfall stays below P300 billion. As of end-November, the deficit amounted to P272 billion.

The government’s dividend program for 2009 was P10 billion but as of the first 11 months, total remittances have amounted to about P15 billion.

For this year, the DoF does not expect much as payments since they were projecting only P4 billion compared to 2008’s P6.78 billion.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), which did not remit dividends for 2007 since it incurred losses of P86 billion for that period, remitted P6 billion on its 2008 income but based on a Commission on Audit report, the government could still collect P16 billion from the central bank as back dividends because of miscalculations in the past.

GOCCs are required by law to remit 50 percent of their yearly income to the National Government but the central bank is required to remit more or 75 percent of their income for a given year.

The DoF was banking on privatization as stop-gap measure but failing to raise P30 billion as programmed from the sale of state assets, it has now turned to GOCCs and GFIs to provide the necessary funds.

The government was able to raise just P1 billion from privatization in 2009 compared to P31.3 billion in 2008 and P90.6 billion in 2007.