Windfall from privatization exceeds targets
The government’s privatization office exceeded its target amount of remittance to the national treasury in 2023, the Department of Finance (DOF) said, as the Marcos administration ramped up the sale of idle state assets to generate more revenues and help bridge a large budget deficit.
As of Dec. 12, the Privatization and Management Office (PMO) remitted P1.21 billion to the Bureau of the Treasury, thanks to the sale of nonperforming state assets along with cash dividends and other forms of revenue, data from the DOF showed.
The DOF said the haul had surpassed the PMO’s remittance target by 84.6 percent. At the same time, the PMO crushed its performance from 2018 to 2021 in just one year.
Sales goal
“Privatization plays a key role in funding the needs of the national government spending programs,” the DOF said in a statement.
For this year, the government targeted to privatize P2 billion worth of assets. If the goal is met, it would be higher than the P501 million raised in 2022.
Last June, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the government would place at least 143 properties worth P2.5 billion on the auction block in the second half to generate funds for the Marcos administration, which has to bridge a projected budget deficit of P1.5 trillion this year.
Diokno said the government planned to sell 36 properties amounting to P397.73 million in the third quarter and 57 assets with a combined value of P431.4 million in the last three months of the year.
For next year, the PMO had said it would prioritize disposal of assets that are too costly to maintain, as well as those without informal settlers and pending legal cases.
“Given the administration’s strong pipeline of programs and projects that it aims to implement, the funds generated through the diligent and expedited privatization efforts are crucial to achieving our goals,” the DOF said. —Ian Nicolas P. Cigaral INQ
