Free irrigation policy makes old fees hard to collect, NIA says
THE National Irrigation Administration (NIA) said the government’s free irrigation policy is making it difficult to collect from farmers the irrigation service fee (ISFs) they owed before the policy came into force.
“The back accounts from 2016 and earlier are still subject to collection. This is one of the challenges that we encountered. Some farmers don’t want to pay what they owe,” said NIA Administrator Ricardo R. Visaya in a briefing on Wednesday.
Farmers have long been lobbying for the removal of ISFs and the condonation of unpaid back accounts.
As of end-2016, the agency’s ISFs in arrears total P12.31 billion.
Mr. Visaya said the agency will seek the assistance of the Office of the Solicitor General to possibly litigate the matter.
The NIA was given a P38.37 billion budget this year, around P2 billion of which will be used to cover the ISFs foregone when the new policy was implemented this year.
NIA uses the ISFs to fund the operation and maintenance of facilities nationwide and used to finance the compensation of all workers of the agency.
The NIA administrator added that the legislation making free irrigation permanent is expected for third reading soon.
The NIA charter or Republic Act (RA) 3601, as amended by Presidential Decrees 552 and 1702, as well RA 8435 or the Agricultural and Fisheries Modernization Law, gives NIA the power and authority to collect ISFs.
ISFs were abolished in 1998 by former President Joseph E. Estrada but were reinstated later. —