Wednesday, July 30, 2008 [ philstar.com ]
The Home Mutual Development Fund (HMDF) or Pag-ibig Fund is eyeing to raise P8 billion in revenues this year on expectations that more members will avail of home loans, its top official yesterday said.
The 2008 revenue projection is slightly higher than the P7.4 billion recorded last year and the P7.9 billion recorded in 2006, Pag-Ibig Fund chief executive officer Romero Quimbo said.
Quimbo said the 2008 projection took into account expectations of higher home lending. He said that home lending is expected to grow 84 percent this year from the previous year’s P23 billion.
For 2009, Quimbo said revenues are expected to hit double digit or P10.5 billion to P11 billion if Pag-Ibig Fund’s exemption from payment of corporate income tax is implemented.
This as pending measures in Congress seek to strengthen the Pag-Ibig Fund by exempting it from the payment of corporate income tax and the Salary Standardization Law.
The pending measures seek to further strengthen the Pag-Ibig Fund to make it more effective in generating savings and mobilizing provident funds for housing and shelter purposes.
Proposals also include the expansion of the Board of Trustees of the Pag-Ibig Fund to enable it to effectively manage and administer the Fund and the strengthening of the Fund’s enforcement power to enable it to pursue and give appropriate sanctions to delinquent employers, borrowers and debtors.
Quimbo said that in the last five years, the agency paid P10 billion in taxes and has utilized less than P5 billion in government subsidies.
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