Support for rice farmers assured despite tariff reduction—House Agri Committee
THE House Committee on Agriculture on Thursday assured the reduced duties on imported rice won’t adversely affect government support to rice farmers even with substantial increase in funding to enhance farmers’ competitiveness under the proposed amendments to the Rice Tariffication Law.
“Even at the higher allocation of P15 billion for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund under the House version of the revised RTL, we are already assured it will be funded for next year,” said Quezon Rep. Mark Enverga, panel chairman, said.
The current RCEF, otherwise known as Rice Fund, sets aside P10 billion a year from tariff collection on rice import to fund farm mechanization, provision of better seeds, as well as training on new farming technologies. The RCEF was supposed to end this year but pending legislation seeks to extend the Rice Fund until 2030.
Data from the Bureau of Customs showed that tariff collection on rice import in the first five months of 2024 already reached P21 billion, more than enough to cover the proposed higher Rice Fund allocation.
“We will make sure that our rice farmers won’t be short changed in this government effort to bring down the cost of rice for the benefit of millions of Filipino consumers. So, even if tariff collection falls short for RCEF allocation, the government will provide funds to fill whatever deficiency to ensure sufficient financing for the Rice Fund,” said Enverga.
Enverga was among the lawmakers who joined Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez in meeting with representatives of government agencies and big supermarket operators to ensure that the expected benefits of the impending tariff reduction to 15 percent from 35 percent will actually trickle down to consumers in the form of lower priced food staple. The tariff reduction is expected to be implemented within the third quarter.
“This is now a whole of nation approach. The private supermarket operators, who we met earlier, are willing to absorb some losses in support of this effort of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to bring down the price of rice,” Speaker Romualdez said.
“What we want is that every Filipino family table will have affordable, quality rice all year round,” he added.
Jeffrey Lim, president of SM Prime, the company of the Sy Group that runs supermarkets and other retail outlets, and Vicent Co, president of Puregold, were present during the consultative meeting.
“We’re anticipating that we will feel the impact on this tariff reduction as soon as possible, maybe before the SONA,” said Speaker Romualdez, referring to the President’s annual State of the Nation Address (SONA).
Agriculture Undersecretary Christopher Morales, who heads the Department of Agriculture’s Masagana Rice Industry Development Program, said the DA will ensure that all the support need by rice farmers will be provided and if needed, additional funds will be sought from Congress.
