The government has been considering providing direct assistance to farmers to cushion the impact of the rice tariff in its latest rounds of review, the Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DEPDev) said.
The government has been weighing a win-win solution in time for the rice tariff’s next round of review due in November, DepDev Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon said on Wednesday.
She was speaking on the sidelines of the DEPDev’s Capacity Building Workshop on Communications for Promoting Economic and Financial Literacy.
Executive Order No. 62, issued in July 2024, lowering the import duty on rice to 15 percent, requires the national government to review the levy every four months.
The DEPDev is expected to release a report on its latest review by August 1.
Edillon said the latest review will focus on assessment, without providing final recommendations yet. The next round in November will tackle “other options.”
“Because the issue is, you want to maintain low and stable inflation, especially rice prices. But at the same time, you also want to safeguard the farmers. So we are looking for that win-win solution,” she said.
Edillon said a recommendation under study would keep the current tariff but provide direct assistance to the farmers “so the tariff issue should not really matter to them.”
Edillon said the government will explore all options, identify which forms of assistance would be the most effective, and study ways to improve the delivery of aid.
Edillon added that the DEPDev has been studying the revival of the National Food Authority’s functions to stabilize rice prices.
“We’ll see if there are certain changes that can be reversed… particularly with supervening conditions,” she said.
Meanwhile, she said the NFA Council has been studying how to keep the price for palay above a floor price.
The NFA currently purchases palay at P18 to P24 per kilogram, which is considered well above the estimated production cost of P12 to P14 per kg. The Department of Agriculture, however, noted that some traders have been offering farmers as little as P11.50 per kg. “It will be very tricky though for operationalizing it and even estimating it,” Edillon added.
In March, the farmers’ lobby group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) filed a petition with the Tariff Commission for the reimposition of the 35 percent tariff on imported rice that EO 62 suspended.
