Manila  - The Philippine government on Tuesday launched a 2-billion-peso (46-million-dollar) subsidy programme for poor families amid rising food and utility prices.

Under the programme, at least 4 million families will receive 500 pesos to help them pay their electric bills, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said.

Families can only receive the subsidy one time.

"We would be providing targeted cash payments to the poorest of the poor to help them cope with their electric bills," Arroyo said at the launch of the programme.

"The high price of gasoline and everyday commodities hit our poor the hardest," she added.

"While the high price of oil is a global issue, we have nevertheless and we will continue to take actions to reduce the pain on our people of these high prices," she said.

Arroyo said the fund for the subsidy programme came from the government's revenues from collecting value-added tax (VAT) on oil and petroleum products.

Amid calls by some legislators for the suspension of VAT on oil products to help reduce prices, Arroyo said additional revenues from the tax have helped fund the delivery of basic services to the poor.

"Due to our increased revenue collections from the implementation of the VAT on oil, we now have billions of pesos to fund programmes and projects to uplift the lives of the poor," she said. (dpa)