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FILE PHOTO: NFA rice
PASAY CITY, Philippines – Senator Cynthia Villar of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food insists that the National Food Authority (NFA) must still provide low-priced rice in local markets even with the passage of the proposed Rice Tariffication Act.
“President Duterte said that even with rice tariffication and liberalization of the rice industry, the NFA shall continue to provide the public particularly the less fortunate with rice that is affordable and safe,” Villar said.
This can be done, according to Villar, because the NFA will be buying rice supply from local farmers as stated in the proposed Act.
But rice retailers ‘Alyansa ng Industriya ng Bigas’ have another concern.
They argue that they see no price reduction in rice in local markets even if the rice tariffication bill is enacted into law.
“May tariff kami na binabayaran na 35% na amount,kung magkano ang bili namin sa abroad, like Vietnam, Thailand. Pero kapag napirmahan ang tariffication, ibig sabihin may tariff pa rin 35%. Pero kahit sino pwedeng magparating (dahil) open na. Anong mangyayari? Walang magri-regulate. There (must be) somebody who would regulate,” said the group’s chairman Robert Hernandez in a phone interview on Monday (December 24).
According to the proponent of the Rice Tariffication Bill, the price of rice after the enactment of the law will lower by P4/kg to P7/kg from the current price of commercial rice.
But the rice retailers group believes this would never happen because of the expected rise in the price of oil products next year as an impact of the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act.
Specifically, there will be a P2.00 increase in excise tax to every liter of diesel and gasoline starting January 1, 2019.
“Pag-transport mo ng bigas, island to island, we need fuel. So apektado rin kami. Ang mangyayari niyan add-on cost namin iyan,” Hernandez lamented.
Meanwhile, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs has a different view on the issue.
“Mas dadami ang murang bigas sa merkado dahil ang pribadong sector ay makakapag-angkat na ng murang bigas,” Gatchalian concluded. – Marje Pelayo (with reports from Nel Maribojoc)
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