SBMA grows by leaps and bounds
The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has set a new record high in financial performance with its 2014 net income of P1.556 B, up 40% from P1.11 B in 2013.
“Revenues from port operations, tourism and industrial commercial leases rose to P2.442 B or 21% vs. 2013 figures, while EBITDA or operating profit hit P1.391 B or 51% over the previous year,” SBMA Chairman & Administrator Roberto V. Garcia said in his recent State of the Freeport Address (SOFA).
Port revenues marked a 45% increase to P909 M, mainly as a result of the port congestion in Manila that caused importers to shift to Subic. Locator export volumes also registered a whopping 59% increase from 2013.
In tourism, a 12 % hike in tourist traffic boosted tourism revenue by 61%, making the Subic Bay Freeport the no. 1 tourist destination in Central Luzon, records from the Dept. of Tourism (DoT) show.
Industrial and commercial leases were up 13% to P1.050 B with more businesses being put up in the Freeport, consequently increasing jobs generated to 96,958 in 2014, an 8% increase from 2013.
According to Garcia, official figures show tax collections by both the Bureau of Customs (BoC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in Subic pumped-in a total of P17.1 B to the national coffers for 2014 alone.
“Customs collections and income taxes from Subic-registered companies and their employees never faltered and mirrored the overall uptick in the Philippine Economy in recent years,” Garcia said.
Of the total, BoC accounted for P15.3 B while BIR for P1.8 B, both record-breaking feats compared to previous collections.
BoC smashed its 2013 then unprecedented record collections at P12.3 B from the previous year’s P7.6 B only but still above its P7.2 B in 2011, P6.7 B in 2010, P5.6 B in 2009 and P5.3 B in 2008.
Government-to-government transactions in 2014 also saw the BoC register a total of P2.2 B in non-cash collections.
Meanwhile, of the BIR’s 2014 P1.8 B collections, P1.4 B was from income taxes, P381 M from the Value-Addd Tax (VAT) and other taxes worth P29.5 M.
Garcia said a portion of the BIR collections in the Freeport is the five (5) percent corporate tax computed from the annual gross income of Subic-registered locator companies.
Three (3) percent of the 5 percent corporate taxes goes to the national treasury while the remaining two (2) percent is released to neighboring Local Government Units (LGU), namely Olongapo City, Castillejos, San Marcelino, San Antonio and Subic towns in Zambales and Dinalupihan, Hermosa and Morong, all in Bataan, as shares.
The LGUs received a total of P199 M from the SBMA in 2014 while the national government was P298 M richer with the 3% SBMA remittance.
The local government shares are released semi-annually to spur development in the eight neighboring localities.
Garcia attributed SBMA’s sterling performance record in recent years to “good governance, the implementation of strategic initiatives and the hard work of the agency’s management and employees.”
The shares are determined according to a formula giving a 50-percentage weight to population, 25 percent to land area and 25 percent to equal sharing.
The releases are made under a direct payment scheme initiated by the SBMA some four years ago to hasten the release of the local government shares. Previously, the releases were coursed through the national treasury.
