SENATOR Cynthia A. Villar said P7 billion needs to be added to the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) proposed budget next year in order to fund the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF).
She said RCEF will require P30 billion next year, but as it is supported mainly by tariffs on imported rice, a shortfall is looming after the reduction in tariff rates to 15% from 35%.
At a Senate finance committee hearing looking into the DA’s proposed P178.27 billion next year, Ms. Villar said the government is expected to collect P15 billion in rice import tariffs in 2025.
She said RCEF under current rules needs to disburse P10 billion, while a program providing financial assistance to farmers who own farmland measuring 2 hectares and below will take up P8 billion.
Citing the goal of providing P30 billion to RCEF, she said: “I want the DA to put (a further P7 billion) into the budget.”
Rice tariff collections amounted to about P30 billion last year, according to the Bureau of Customs.
Congress has passed a measure seeking to raise the yearly allocation of the RCEF to P30 billion from P10 billion until 2031. The President has yet to sign it into law.
The measure amends the Rice Tariffication Law of 2019 or Republic Act No. 11203. RA 11203 opened up to private entities the rice import trade, which had previously been dominated by the National Food Authority (NFA), which imported the grain via government-to-government deals.
The private traders instead had to pay a tariff of 35% on their shipments of Southeast Asian grain. The tariff has since been reduced to 15% and applies to rice from all sources.
The 2019 law also restricted the NFA to buying domestic grain to maintain an emergency reserve of rice for use during calamities.
Meanwhile, Ms. Villar said she backed a P50-million budget to establish a rubber institute next year, subject to negotiations at the plenary, and additional funding for the Bureau of Animal Industry by setting up a livestock, poultry and dairy competitiveness fund.
The Senate in August approved on final reading a bill seeking to develop a modernization plan for the livestock, poultry and dairy industries. — John Victor D. Ordoñez