THE Social Security System (SSS) said it expects net profit to surpass P100 billion this year.
SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Rolando L. Macasaet said in a briefing on Thursday that bottom-line profit will be “over P100 billion” in 2024.
Last year, the pension fund booked a record net profit of P83.13 billion, up 58% from 2022.
SSS revenue increased 15.6% to P353.82 billion in 2023.
Contribution collections rose 18.2% to P309.12 billion.
Mr. Macasaet said this year’s earnings will be driven by increased member contributions, stepped-up collection efforts and prudent management.
“We have receivables of over P60 billion…though it’s already in accounts receivable, that exact amount will go to income,” he said.
He also noted the strong performance of the stock market. “The stock market today is almost at 7,000 points. We will hit 7,000. If we hit 8,000 by year and they are predicting a little over 8,000 by year’s end, we have almost P500 billion in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), so you can imagine the income we’ll make,” he added.
On Thursday, the Philippine Stock Exchange Index declined 0.53% to 6,827.06 while the broader all-shares index dropped 0.25% to 3,580.32.
The SSS is also pushing to expand its membership, Mr. Macasaet said.
“I’ve given instructions that we increase the number of SSS members from say 1 million to 1.5 million to at least 2 million a year to exceed the population growth rate. Otherwise, over time the number of Filipinos having pensions will decrease as a percentage of population,” he said.
“Our target this year is 2 million, and I’m happy to inform you for the first quarter, I think we have hit half a million new members. I’m told we might hit 2.5 million instead of 2 million,” he added. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson
