The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) has asked the Senate to commission an independent group to undertake an evaluation of the impact of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).
The group also downplayed the Department of Finance’s (DOF) recent announcement that the National Food Authority (NFA) was able to cut its net loss last year to P9.6 billion following the implementation of the redefined functions of the agency under the RTL.
FFF said NFA’s losses actually increased during the first three years of the RTL’s implementation and that a review is needed as a section of the law provides for it as mandatory on the third year of the utilization of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, which is funded out of the tariffs collected from rice imports.
“NFA lost a total of P41.87 billion from 2019 to 2021. This is larger than the P36.8 billion that the agency lost between 2016 to 2018, or before RTL was enacted,” Raul Montemayor, FFF national manager, said in a statement.
He added government subsidies to NFA also doubled to almost P64 billion between 2019 and 2021 compared to only P28.5 billion during the three years preceding the RTL enactment.
The FFF said NFA generated only P0.51 in revenues for every peso of operating cost between 2019 and 2021 which is significantly lower than the P0.64 revenue generation rate during the three years immediately preceding RTL.
It said whatever savings the NFA may have generated as a result of its reduced mandate under RTL came at the expense of both farmers and consumers.
“During the first three years of RTL, farmers’ incomes declined by P66 billion due to the drop in palay prices brought about by massive imports. Even if we credit in full the P47 billion in tariffs on rice imports that were supposedly channeled to support programs, farmers would still end up with P19 billion in net losses,” Montemayor explained.
The FFF said consumers also lost out because of the disappearance of cheap NFA rice from the market that can be bought at a fixed price of P27 per kilogram.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar said he is optimistic the sector is among the priorities of the next administration.
This year, the DA’s approved budget amounts to P85.5 billion, higher than last year’s allocation of P69 billion.
Asked about the viability of Marcos’ pronouncement of lower rice prices at up to P20 per kilogram, Dar said the former could have been referring to palay prices.
“I surmise that the P20 per kg rice is for palay, not for rice. We have a present farmgate price of palay which is P19 and increasing that to P20 is very viable,” Dar said.
Source: https://malaya.com.ph/news_business/farmers-group-downplays-nfas-claim-of-lower-losses/?amp
