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PRIVATE
think tank Ibon Foundation Inc. believes the government
can ensure the public of cheaper rice prices by
strengthening the National Food Authority (NFA), doing
away with trade liberalization and resisting creditor
pressure.
In a
statement, that together with lifting the rice-import
quota, the proposal to increase the NFA rice prices are
part of the government’s effort to enforce liberalized
trade and an effort to comply with conditionalities set
by multilateral creditors like the World Bank (WB) and
the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Ibon
research head Jose Enriquez Africa said the government
can increase the NFA’s procurement to help local rice
producers, which can be done by increasing the
government’s subsidy for rice. This will help the
government lower rice prices.
“Rice
imports needed to make up for shortfalls in local
production could mean as much as a P64.1-billion subsidy
for the NFA rice this year, an amount that is already
over five times the national government deficit in 2007.
Providing this much subsidy—even if it will benefit
farmers and consumers—would not sit well with
creditors,” Ibon said in a statement.
“Hence,
instead of strengthening the NFA, government has removed
rice-import quota to allow private traders to import
larger amounts of rice, and now proposes for a hike in
NFA prices,” the think tank added.
Ibon
added the government’s “obsession” with balancing the
budget this year is hindering it from increasing the
NFA’s subsidy.
Africa
said by striving to balance the budget this year is a
clear indication that the government has chosen the
needs of its creditors over the welfare of the poorest
in the country.
“As it
is, the country’s rice cartel and other hoarders are
already exploiting the situation of expensive NFA rice
to manipulate stocks and raise prices even higher,”
Africa said.
“The
administration trumpets successes on the fiscal front.
But the current problem of rising rice prices confronts
it with the challenge of translating any so-called gains
into concrete benefits for the people,” he concluded.
Earlier,
National Economic and Development Authority (Neda)
acting director general Augusto Santos urged the
government to focus on the proper distribution of
subsidized rice sold by the NFA to ease the pressure on
rice supply.
Santos
said that this, coupled by keeping tariffs at the
50-percent mark and forgoing moves to lower this to a
level below 12 percent, would also help improve the
plight of Filipino farmers.
Santos
said that reducing tariffs will cause as much as 2
million farmers or a total 10 million Filipinos to
suffer. An average Filipino family is composed of five
members.
“We have
to take care of our Filipino farmers,” Santos said.
The
latest data from the Bureau of Agriculture Statistics
(BAS) showed that well-milled NFA rice sells for P18.25
per kilo, while well-milled commercial rice are sold
within the range of P32 to P35 per kilo at retail
outlets and P34 per kilo at groceries and supermarkets.
Other
commercial rice sold in the market are the fancy,
premium and regular milled, which costs P36 to P50, P34
to P38 and P30 to P34 per kilo in retail outlets. |
