VOTING 14-0 on third reading, the Senate on Wednesday adopted Committee Report 440 endorsing passage of a law replacing the quantitative import restrictions on rice with tariffs. The House of Representatives had earlier passed its version.
Embodied in Senate Bill 1998, the proposed law also creates the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund that sponsors pushed for adoption in a bid to break up the rice cartel.
The government is keen on converting the QR on rice into tariffs before the end of the year as it is seen as a way of taming inflation, which breached 6 percent in August.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said the conversion of the QR was
prioritized over the reform of the National Food Authority to fast-track the approval of a measure that would amend Republic Act (RA) 8178.
Under RA 8178, or the Agricultural Tariffication Act, only rice was not assigned a tariff because the World Trade Organization had allowed the country to enjoy the QR.
Economic managers expect the removal of the import caps to reduce the retail price of rice by as much as P4 to P7 per kilogram. As such, he said this will increase the purchasing power of low-income households.
Pernia noted that the lifting of the rice QR is “significant” for inflation rate because rice prices account for 10 percent of the country’s inflation rate.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes