Marikina Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo | PHOTO: Official facebook page of the House of Representatives of the Philippines
MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker noted that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s policy of cutting tariffs on imported rice did not significantly lower the staple’s market price while also causing considerable revenue losses.
Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, during the House joint committee on Tuesday, noted that Marcos’ Executive Order No. 62 mandating the rice levy reduction from 35 percent to 15 percent—which took effect in July—did not have the intended effect of significantly reducing its market prices.
READ: Marcos formalizes rice tariff cut via EO 62
The Department of Agriculture (DA) said the price reduction would be felt starting in October.
However, Quimbo noted that the average quarter local rice prices only went down from P51.12 to only P50.68 in the next quarter after Marcos’ EO took place.
This is far from the projected price drop of DA, citing economic managers who said it could lead to P5 to P7 decrease.
Also, the tariff cut even led to the loss of government revenue, according to Vincent Philip Maronilla, assistant commissioner of the Bureau of Customs.
Responding to Quimbo’s query as to how much the government loses in revenues, Maronilla said: “Per the records of Bureau of Customs, the foregone revenue is about P12 billion from the time the law was implemented.”
The tariff cut also led to a volume increase of imports, but Maronilla could not yet provide the exact data.
“There is more incentive to import,” Maronilla noted.
Quimbo noted that the volume increase of imports should have led to a significant price reduction.
“In short,” Quimbo said, “it really doesn’t make sense, right?”
At one point, she also said: “Bakit hindi masyadong malaki ang effect on the [price] levels?” (Why does it not have a significant effect on price levels?)
“Baka nga, merong pagsasabwatan,” Quimbo then said, alluding to rice importers. (Perhaps, there is a conspiracy.)