BSP to remit P9B to Treasury – Sen. Drilon

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has agreed to transmit more than P9 billion in remittances to the national government. Senator Franklin Drilon, chairman of the Senate finance committee, said the BSP is transferring to the national coffers P9.312 billion to pay for underremittances from 2003 to 2006. "This will significantly reduce the budget shortfall and will help in the President's program of improving the economy without imposing new or additional taxes," said Drilon. The development came after the senator revealed that the BSP owed the national government some P16 billion in dividends. Drilon said the BSP agreed to pay its unremitted due from 2003 to 2006 in full by January 2011. BSP's remittances for 2007 to 2009 will still have to be recomputed, he noted. The need for recomputation, Drilon said, arose from the dispute between the BSP and the Commission and Audit regarding the method of computing the dividends. "There will be a recomputation of the dividends since this back dividends only cover the years 2003 to 2006," said Drilon. Republic Act 7656 requires government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) — like the BSP — to declare and remit at least 50 percent of annual net earnings as cash and stock or property dividends to the national government. But in a letter to Drilon on Aug. 24, BSP Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. said that RA 7656 does not apply to the central bank since as "an independent central monetary authority [which] enjoys fiscal and administrative autonomy, in accordance with Section 20, Article XII of the Constitution." Drilon earlier filed Senate Resolution 66, which is supposed to stop abuses of GOCC officials who reportedly draw excessive salaries and unwarranted perks. He likewise said that the Senate would also be looking into the dividend remittances of GOCCs. "We don't want to impose new taxes so we have to look for new revenues," he said. —JE/VS, GMANews.TV