Incentives for mills using local materials

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol is proposing that the government provide tax incentives for feed milling companies that are using locally produced corn and other feed materials.

“My position is that our tax incentives offered to new investors, which include tax holidays, are discriminatory to local processors and manufacturers. For using local meat, chicken, corn, cassava, aqua and marine products and others in their processing operators, local companies should be given similar incentives as foreign investors,” Piñol said in his official Facebook page posted Sunday.

The official said a proposal has been embodied in a draft bill, now being drafted by the DA Legal Office, which is yet to be submitted to both House of Representatives and the Senate. The secretary also presented the proposal to the Philippine Partners for Sustainable Agriculture (PPSA) last Oct. 16.

If passed into law, Piñol said the measure is expected to encourage feed millers to use more local feed components and “assure local producers of a good price for their produce, thus stimulating greater agri- cultural and fisheries productivity.” “In the long haul, this proposed measure will create more job opportunities and address poverty in the countryside,” he added.

In the second quarter of 2017, the agriculture sector grew by 6.3 percent, or equivalent to 0.5 percent to the overall 6.5 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth. /