BSP dividends to National Government up 46%

MANILA, Philippines - The amount of dividends to be remitted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to the National Government grew by more than 46 percent this year after the BSP posted higher earnings. 

BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said in an interview with reporters that the central bank would remit about P9.8 billion worth of dividends to the national coffers this year or about P3.1 billion higher than the P6.7 billion it remitted last year.

Tetangco said the amount to be remitted this year would be the second biggest, with the highest being the P10.1 billion dividends declared in 1997.

“This is the second biggest because we remitted P10.1 billion in 1997,” he stressed.

Republic Act 7658 or the dividends law requires government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) and government financial institutions (GFIs) to remit 50 percent of their net income to the National Government.

However, RA 7553 or the New Central Bank of 1993 requires the BSP to declare 75 percent of its net earnings as dividends in favor of the National Government.

Based on its unaudited financial statement, the BSP’s net income reached about P13 billion last year or about 45 percent higher than the P8.93 billion it earned in 2008.

Last year, the central bank remitted about P6 billion to the national coffers and another P696.33 million in the first half of the year to complete its dividend payments for its earnings in 2008.

For its net income last year, Tetangco said the BSP remitted P4.475 billion as well as P450 million in property dividends to the National Government during its 17th anniversary celebration.

He pointed out that the BSP would remit another P4 billion in the next few months subject to the completion by the Commission on Audit (COA) of its review of the central bank’s 2009 financial statements.

The BSP chief said the central bank has declared P59.5 billion worth of dividends in favor of the National Government since it was created in 1993 and paid more than P50 billion in taxes over the past 11 years.

The central bank continued to remit dividends religiously despite the failure of the National Government to complete its P50-billion capital infusion to the BSP.