BY VANNE ELAINE TERRAZOLA
The Senate agriculture committee approved on Friday the proposal that would allow the government to disburse its excess tariff collections from rice imports as cash assistance to small farmers.
Senate Joint Resolution No. 12 seeks to authorize the use of excess collections by the Bureau of Customs (BoC) under the Rice Tariffication Act (Republic Act No. 11203) this year to be included in the General Appropriations Act of 2021 for assistance to farmers displaced by the pandemic and the plummeting prices of palay.
In the online hearing, Senator Cynthia Villar, chair of the Senate agriculture panel and proponent of the joint resolution, said that tariff collections from January to September this year amounted to over P13.61 billion according to the customs.
She said the BOC has also yet to disburse some excess tariff collections from 2019.
“So together, we want that money to be used as cash assistance for the rice farmers,” Villar said.
She noted that RA No. 11203 provides that if revenues from rice importation exceed P10 billion within the six years following its enactment, the excess shall be earmarked by Congress to help rice farmers and be included in the GAA.
“[Congress] will choose if they will give it to rice farmers as financial assistance, the titling of agricultural lands, expanded crop insurance program on rice and crop diversification,” said Villar, principal author of the Rice Tariffication Law.
“I think we should put it as financial assistance to rice farmers…Because I think we would prefer to just give it to rice farmers instead of allocating it for programs. The Department of Agriculture (DA) has a lot of programs for rice, anyway,” she said. (Vanne Elaine Terrazola)
