The Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) on Tuesday said the proposed extension of lower tariff on rice, corn and pork deserves an outright rejection as the existing mechanism has not proven beneficial to consumers and has negatively impacted local producers.
This developed as the Tariff Commission (TC) schedules to hear the matter on Monday next week to provide Malacanang and legislators basis as to whether extending the most favored nation tariff rate cut on the commodities is warranted.
“Three years of reduced tariff on rice, pork and corn have not resulted to any significant decrease in retail prices. It even went up! Our experience with tariff reduction is crystal clear; it has not benefitted the farmers, it has not favored the consumers and resulted in revenue losses to the government,” SINAG said in a statement.
“Only a few privileged importers and favored traders are the true beneficiaries of tariff reduction,” the group added.
SINAG said the new proposal for tariff reduction on rice, pork and corn should also be rejected outright on the grounds that there is no supply shortage.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed last year Executive Order 10 extending the reduced most favored nation tariff rates on pork, corn, rice and coal until 31 December 2023.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) said the extension is “necessary” as local goods production is unstable and influenced by many factors.
As consequence of EO 10, the duty rates on pork for in quota and out quota shipments stand at 15 percent and 25 percent, respectively, until the end of the year.
EO 10 also kept the in quota and out quota tariff on rice to 35 percent and corn tariff to 5 percent for in quota and to 15 percent for out quota until the end of the year.
The policy also maintained the zero tariff on coal beyond 2023 subject to a semestral review.
Well-milled rice sell from P45 to P48 per kilo and regular milled rice from P41 to P45 per kilo based on government monitoring data.
The price of imported well milled rice ranges from P45 to P48 per kilo and imported regular milled at P43 per kilo.
Imported rice sell for P53 to P60 for the special variety and P52 to P58 for premium.
For local special variety rice sell from P54 to P62 per kilo and premium from P47 to P60 per kilo.
Pork kasim sell from P260 to P330 per kilo while pork liempo sell from P290 to P400 per kilo.
