House OKs rice tariff bill

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives yesterday approved on third and final reading the rice tariffication bill, a priority measure of President Duterte.

Under the bill, volume restrictions on rice imports would be replaced with 40-percent tariff. 

All duties collected from the importation of rice would go to a rice competitiveness enhancement fund that would be used to help farmers.

The administration’s economic managers have estimated that liberalizing rice imports through tariffication could lower the inflation rate by 0.4 percent.

Rep. Jose Panganiban Jr. of party-list ANAC-IP, agriculture committee chairman, is the principal author and sponsor of the bill.

Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte, a co-author, said the measure is a “win-win for consumers and farmers alike at this time when Filipinos are reeling from an inflation spike.”

He said the replacement of quantitative restrictions on rice imports with tariff is expected to bring down the cost of rice by as much as P7 per kilo.

“Lower rice prices would ease inflation because rice accounts for a big part of ordinary Filipinos’ food expenses, which consume most of their income,” he said.

Villafuerte urged the Senate to deliberate on a counterpart bill with similar urgency.

Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. said safety nets for farmers “should be advanced instead of waiting for them to be funded by income from the duties on rice to be imported.”

He said the P5-billion reduction in the 2019 budget of the Department of Agriculture (DA) could be restored to allow it to help farmers.

“Or the DA budget could be increased based on the programs it will recommend, but taking into account its absorptive capacity. You don’t set up the safety net when the person it is supposed to catch is already falling. This is for signaling purposes to our rice farmers, to calm their fears, that when we enter into a tariffication regime, programs that will help them transition are already pre-positioned,” he said.

Sen. Cynthia Villar called on the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to ensure the allocation of P10 billion in subsidy for the rice industry as the imposition of tariff on rice imports will not immediately trickle down to farmers.

“I am telling the DBM secretary (Benjamin Diokno) that he has to provide for that budget next year even if the bill has yet to be passed. They should already anticipate that,” Villar told reporters on the sidelines of the 1st World Coconut Congress on Tuesday.

The government is expecting at least P20 billion in revenues from the rice tariff, which will be directed to the rice competitiveness enhancement fund (RCEF).

As the government moves toward the removal of the quantitative restriction, Republic Act No. 8178 or the Agricultural Tariffication Act of 1996, which had put the rice import quota in place, must be amended.

Villar said Congress would pass the tariffication bill within the year.

Fish importation

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said there is no longer a plan to immediately import pork and chicken, but the importation of fish would push through to stabilize prices.

The DA will no longer import pork and chicken because of the unutilized import permits by the private sector since there will be enough supply in time for the Christmas holidays.

Piñol said there is no need to come up with additional imports given the available minimum access volume. – With Louise Maureen Simeon, Roel Pareño