Pasado na sa House Committee on Appropriations ang panukala para i-tap ang sobrang pondo ng mga GOCC o Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations pampondo sa unprogrammed funds.
Salig sa House Bill 9513 na inihain ni Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda, aamyendahan ang RA 11936 o 2023 General Appropriations Act kung saan nagdagdag ng criterion o batayan para sa paglalabas o pagkukunan ng unprogrammed funds.
Ibig sabihin, maliban sa excess revenue mula sa koleksyon ng buwis, bagong revenue collection at foreign loans—maaari na ring pagkunan ng unprogrammed funds ang sobrang pondo ng mga GOCC.
Punto ni Salaceda, maraming government corporation na sobra-sobra ang pondo kahit pa mag-remit ng dibidendo sa pamahalaan.
“GOCCs are awash with cash and will continue to be so, because the Dividend Law only requires the remittance of half of NET EARNINGS, not excess ACCUMULATED PROFITS over the years. It makes even more sense to be able to make equity withdrawals when you look at profitable GOCCs that receive subsidies that the Government has to borrow for.” paliwanag ni Salceda.
Dagdag pa ng House tax chief, kailangan gumastos ang pamahalaan ng 11.3% ng pondo nito kumpara noong nakaraang taon upang maabot ang target na 6% GDP growth.
Matatandaan aniya na noong ikalawang quarter ng taon, dahil sa underspending ay bumaba ang GDP ng bansa.
“As the Q2 GDP numbers warn us, when we underspend, the economy underperforms. Fortunately, the government took this cautionary tale to heed, and we accelerated spending in Q3. But we have only released P261 billion in unprogrammed allocations as of October 2023, and need to release another P266 billion in order to meet what I believe is the necessary level of government spending to meet our growth target.” dagdag ni Salceda. | ulat ni Kathleen Jean Forbes
