PRESIDENT Duterte certified as urgent on Wednesday a measure that would convert the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice into tariffs, according to the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO).
The PLLO said the certificate has been issued to the Senate and will also be sent to the House of Representatives.
The Senate has yet to pass its own version of the rice tariffication bill while the House version was approved on third and final reading in August.
With the urgent certification, a bill need not undergo the three-day rule between the second and third reading, with approval on both levels done within the same day.
In a news briefing in Malacañang, the Department of Finance expressed confidence that the Senate may pass the rice tariff bill within the week. The Senate will go on a break starting October 13.
“The Senate is expected to approve the rice tariffication bill this week, and its quick enactment can further bring down food prices,” Finance Assistant Secretary Tony Lambino told reporters.
Lambino said the conversion of the rice QR will bring down the prices of the staple by P2 to P7 per kilogram.
Economic managers have been banking on the approval of the measure to ease inflation, which surged to a nine-year high of 6.7 percent in September and brought the year-to-date inflation rate to 5 percent.
Lambino also said the removal of nontariff barriers, such as doing away with the need to secure an import license from the National Food Authority (NFA), will help ease high rice prices.
“This is reflected in the Senate version which is already in plenary; it is in the period of amendments. In the bicam, we must support the Senate version as the House version retains the import licensing power of the NFA,” he said.
Under the House version, the bound tariff rate for rice imports outside the minimum access
volume (MAV) is set at 180 percent.
According to the House version, the country will also impose a bound tariff rate of 35 percent for rice from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region, regardless of volume while the country will impose a 40-percent bound tariff most-favored nation rate for in-quota rice imports from countries that do not belong to Asean.
The country’s MAV for rice shall also revert to its 2012 level of 350,000 metric tons from the current 805,000 MT.
The bill also mandates that the NFA will serve as the sole authority that will undertake the direct importation of rice to ensure food security and maintain sufficient national buffer stocks, which is equivalent to 15 days of national consumption requirement.
The NFA is also authorized to allocate import permits among certified and licensed importers for the purchase of buffer stocks and to issue guidelines for the export of rice and corn by certified and licensed traders.