Rice tariff law to boost farmers’ profitability

The P10-billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund in the newly signed Rice Tarrification Law will help farmers improve their profitability and competitiveness, Sen. Cynthia Villar said yesterday

“We thank and laud the President for signing into law the bill creating a package of support programs for farmers, most notably the P10-billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund.

With the expiration of the quantitative restriction on rice importation, this is a very important piece of legislation which will help our farmers improve their profitability and competitiveness,” Villar said.

Villar, sponsor and principal author of the measure, said the law complements other government programs to address the needs of the farming sector, including the P7-billion Rice Program under the Department of Agriculture and the P7-billion budget of the National Food Authority that will be used to buy palay from local farmers for purposes of buffer stocking.

President Duterte’s economic managers identified rice tariffication as among the measures that would help address soaring inflation.

The measure would create the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) as a special rice safeguard duty to protect the rice industry from sudden or extreme price fluctuations.

“One of the key features of the bill is the creation of the RCEF, which shall consist of initial appropriation of P10 billion a year until all duties collected from the importation of rice can replace it,” Villar said. The Senate agreed to set the RCEF at a

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