BOC: RICE TARIFF COLLECTIONS UP 18.6%

Collection from duties slapped on imported rice, which funds the financial support for badly hit local farmers, grew by nearly a fifth year-on-year to P7.4 billion as of mid-May, the Department of Finance (DOF) said on Friday.

In a statement, the DOF said Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero recently reported to Finance Secretary Dominguez that the amount collected from tariffs levied from imports of the Filipino staple food increased 18.6 percent as of May 13, from P6.2 billion a year ago.

As such, Guerrero noted that collections so far already covered 74 percent of the annual P10-billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) which bankrolls programs and projects to modernize the agriculture sector and increase palay growers’ incomes amid the influx of cheaper imports.

Guerrero attributed the higher rice tariff collections to the 43.3-percent increase in import volume, which reached 1.26 million metric tons (MT) from Jan. 1 to May 13 of this year. During the same period last year, 883,068 MT of imported rice entered the country.

“The value of rice continued to drop, posting a decline of 17 percent from P20,126 per MT in the Jan. 1 to May 13 period of last year to P16,710 per MT during the same period this year,” Guerrero told Dominguez.

From 2019, when the Rice Tariffication Law took effect, up to last year, the Bureau of Customs collected a cumulative P46.6 billion in duties from rice imports.

“The Rice Tariffication Law ensures that farmers directly benefit from the liberalization of rice trading by providing at least P10 billion a year to RCEF up to 2024. This law is an opportunity to revolutionize the agriculture sector and help our farmers become more competitive in the global economy,” Dominguez said last week.