By Joann Villanueva/PNA
MANILA — Rice tariffication will be implemented by March 5 this year sans the issuance of its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR).
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III told reporters that “there are parts of the law that are clear upfront and can be implemented earlier than the parts of the law that require an IRR to implement”.
“So the heart of the reform, which tariffies rice importation with the least government intervention, will be implemented ASAP to bring down rice prices for more than 100 million Filipino rice consumers,” he said.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed into law several measures last February 14, including the rice tariffication bill, which is now known as Republic Act (RA) 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Act.
Rice tariffication aims to bring down the cost of rice by allowing higher volume of importation, a change from the use of the minimum access volume (MAV).
Under the newly-signed law, tariff will be based on bound rates, which are 35 percent for all imports from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), 40 percent for in-quota or within MAV from non-ASEAN, and 180 percent for out-quota and non-ASEAN or as calculated by the Tariff Commission.
Economic managers have pushed for rice tariffication to lower rice prices and prevent another price surge, similar to what happened in 2018, which, in turn, resulted in elevated domestic inflation rate due to supply side factors.
Meanwhile, the Department of Finance (DOF) on Tuesday clarified that tariff on rice imports will be implemented on March 5 and not March 3 as announced Monday.
In a press release, the agency said RA 11203 will become effective 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette or in a major daily.
It said that a copy of the said law was published in the Official Gazette on February 18, thus, the official implementation will be March 5.
Quoting Finance Assistant Secretary and spokesperson, Antonio Joselito Lambino II, who attended a press briefing in Malacanang Tuesday, the DOF release said what is important to note is that the President signed the law on February 14.
“And so if we count from the date of publication, which was Feb. 18 on the Official Gazette’s website, then the Rice Tariffication Law, the main parts of it, come into effect on March 5 of 2019,” he said.
Lambino added that during the NFA Council meeting on Monday, the Council members assumed that a copy of the law was published on February 15, thus, they agreed to implement the tariffication by March 3.
