House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said that the House is close to passing the rice tariffication bill.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Arroyo said that the House passed the bill on its second reading Tuesday night, and that she expects it to be passed on its third and final reading within the week.
"I would imagine we will pass it in the House on third reading at the very latest three days after we passed it on second reading last night," the former President said.
Currently, private rice traders can ship 805,200 tons of rice annually without tariffs.
The bill aims to do away with this restriction, and instead, impose a general tariff on all rice imports, which will allow more rice imports to lower the price of rice.
Economic managers of the Duterte administration flagged rice prices as one of the main causes of last month's inflation, which reached another five-year high at 5.7 percent.
"Part of the supply problem is the country's declining rice stock inventory -- caused by weather disturbances in the country and in other rice-producing countries like Thailand and Vietnam -- which is taking a toll on the prices of rice," said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia and Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno in a statement as the joint economic team.
They called for the amendment of Republic Act No. 8178 or the Agricultural Tariffication Act to bring down the price of rice.
The bill for rice tariffication is also one of the priorities stated by President Rodrigo Duterte during his 2018 State of the Nation Address.
The counterpart bill in the Senate is still pending at the committee level.
http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2018/08/08/gloria-macapagal-arroyo-house-bill-rice-tariff.html
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Arroyo said that the House passed the bill on its second reading Tuesday night, and that she expects it to be passed on its third and final reading within the week.
"I would imagine we will pass it in the House on third reading at the very latest three days after we passed it on second reading last night," the former President said.
Currently, private rice traders can ship 805,200 tons of rice annually without tariffs.
The bill aims to do away with this restriction, and instead, impose a general tariff on all rice imports, which will allow more rice imports to lower the price of rice.
Economic managers of the Duterte administration flagged rice prices as one of the main causes of last month's inflation, which reached another five-year high at 5.7 percent.
"Part of the supply problem is the country's declining rice stock inventory -- caused by weather disturbances in the country and in other rice-producing countries like Thailand and Vietnam -- which is taking a toll on the prices of rice," said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia and Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno in a statement as the joint economic team.
They called for the amendment of Republic Act No. 8178 or the Agricultural Tariffication Act to bring down the price of rice.
The bill for rice tariffication is also one of the priorities stated by President Rodrigo Duterte during his 2018 State of the Nation Address.
The counterpart bill in the Senate is still pending at the committee level.
http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2018/08/08/gloria-macapagal-arroyo-house-bill-rice-tariff.html
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