Government attracts 22 bidders for Japan property worth P3B

The government has attracted as much as 22 prospective bidders for its property in Fujimi Cho, Chiyoda Ku, Japan worth at least P3 billion, a Finance official yesterday said.

However, due to the tedious process required in preparing the bids, the government extended the deadline for the submission of documents to March 25, 2008 from the original deadline of March 4, 2008.

The opening of the financial bids which is expected to be followed immediately by the announcement of winners, has been set on April 4, 2008, said Henry Angeles of the DOF’s legal services group.

Angeles said that the government decided to extend the deadline due to the voluminous requirements for bidders.

Earlier, the Philippine government has successfully awarded lease and development contracts for its 764-sqm property in Naniwa Cho and the 3,014-square meter property in Obanoyama Cho both situated in Kobe, Japan to Berg Co. Ltd. of Japan.

The sale of the Fujimi property is part of government efforts to raise revenues and boost state coffers.

The DOF has set a target of P30 billion from privatization for 2008 or one third of the P90.6 billion generated last year. Aside from Fujimi, the P30 billion includes expected revenues from the sale of the government’s stake in power distributor Manila Electric Co., and the 100-hectare Food Terminals Inc. (FTI) in Taguig.

The government has been stepping up efforts to boost state coffers but the privatization of state-owned assets has become the major source of revenues amid shortfalls in tax collections.

Fiscal authorities are stepping up efforts to improve collections. Last year, the government posted a budget deficit of P9.4 billion or way below the programmed ceiling of P63 billion.

It hopes to balance the budget this year.