The Bureau of Customs said over the weekend it collected P8.35 billion from rice import duties in the first five months, up by 14 percent from P7.32 billion a year ago on the back of a 37-percent increase in import volumes.
The BOC said in a report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III the collections from rice import duties from Jan. 1 to May 31 came from 1.43 million metric tons of the grain, which increased 36.9 percent from 1.04-million MT shipped in the same period last year.
Customs deputy commissioner Edward James Dy Buco said in a recent Department of Finance executive committee meeting the agency managed to keep collections on rice import tariffs on track despite the continued drop in the average value of rice in the world market, which fell 16.3 percent from P19,977 per MT in the January to May 2021 period to P16,712 per MT in the same period this year.
He said that from May 1 to 31, the volume of rice imports increased by 18.8 percent to 290,979 MT from 245,033 MT last year, and revenue grew by 3.2 percent to P1.7 billion from P1.65 billion last year.