The government is estimated to lose less than P10 billion in revenues should the proposed tariff rate reduction on rice imports push through, according to the Department of Finance (DOF).
Domini Velasquez, finance undersecretary, said in a forum yesterday the agency is willing to forego the tariff loss “just to make sure that inflation, also, is down.”
Last year, tariff collection from rice imports reached around P30 billion.
“That P10 billion that (the government) will lose, it won’t matter much if we will be able to bring down the prices (of rice) by P4 to P5 (per kilogram),” Velasquez said.
DOF Secretary Ralph Recto earlier said he is in favor of lowering the tariff rate for rice imports.
Recto told reporters the rate could be reduced from the current 35 percent, to support the expected reduction in rice prices by September.
Meanwhile, the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) reduction of tariffs on rice and other sensitive commodities contradicts their assurances in Senate hearings on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Cooperation (RCEP) these products would not suffer any tariff reduction.
FFF called on Senate President Francis Escudero to immediately re-organize and convene its RCEP oversight committee. We need to know if the government lived up to its promises to the agricultural sector…,” said Raul Montemayor, FFF national manager, in a statement.
The group said the Senate must verify if the promised gains from RCEP materialized. It said Congress must honor its commitment to significantly increase the budget of the Department of Agriculture.
Senate Resolution No. 42 dated February 21, 2023 ratified Philippine accession to RCEP but the agreement was entered into force for the country on June 2, 2023.
FFF said the resolution included a list of government’s commitments to assist the agricultural sector in order to allay concerns about the preparedness of Filipino farmers to compete against imports and take advantage of export opportunities. – With Jed Macapagal
