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Friday, March 29, 2024

Senate sets aside P10 billion for program to scrap rice tariff

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An initial appropriation of P10 billion a year will be allocated to the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund under the Rice Tariffication bill until all duties collected from the importation of rice can replace it, according to Senator Cynthia Villar.

Voting 14-0-0, the Senate on Wednesday night approved on third and final reading Senate Bill 1998 under Committee Report 440, or An Act Replacing the Quantitative Import Restrictions on Rice with Tariffs, Lifting the Quantitative Export Restrictions.

The measure would create the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund as a special rice safeguard duty to protect the rice industry from sudden or extreme price fluctuations.

Malacañang on Thursday expressed optimism that the rice tariffication bill will pass smoothly through the deliberations at the bicameral conference committee that will help ensure stable and lower rice prices in the country.

Malacañang Spokesman Salvador Panelo said the measure had been certified as urgent by President Rodrigo Duterte.

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In a statement, Malacañang extended its gratitude to the Senate for passing the administration bill seeking to replace the import restrictions on rice with a tariff system.

With the passage of the rice tariffication bill, Senator Sonny Angara said the price of rice was expected to fall by P7 per kilo. 

Senators unanimously approved setting the RCEF at a minimum P10 billion a year for six years, and tariff revenues in excess of P10 billion will be appropriated by Congress based on a menu of programs in the rice tariffication law.

The fund will be used to provide different forms of assistance to rice farmers such as the development of inbred rice seeds, rice farm equipment and skills enhancement.  

Villar, the sponsor and principal author of the bill, said the staple grain was the only agricultural commodity in the country that had a quantitative restriction, limiting the flow of imported rice to the country.

But all the unnecessary intervention of the government in the rice market would be removed, Villar said.

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