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State-run National Food Authority (NFA) already
availed of more than half of its programmed tax subsidy this year in
the first four months alone, the Department of Budget and Management
reported Wednesday.
Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya
Jr. said the tax subsidy extended to the grains agency from January
to April reached P6.9 billion, or more than half of the P7.5 billion
for the entire 2008.
As a result of higher spending by
the food authority for rice importation, Andaya added that the
government possibly will raise the programmed tax subsidy to
accommodate additional expenses needed by the cash-strapped state
firm.
Finance Secretary Margarito Teves
earlier said they were considering a higher tax subsidy for the
grains agency to compensate for the high prices of rice in the world
market and to increase its buffer stocks.
This year, Teves added, the
grains agency is expected to post a budget deficit of P43.1 billion
from last year’s P17 billion.
Economists said the agency’s
losses are seen to reach P136 billion by 2010 on account of high
prices of commodities.
Andaya said the government has
set aside P43 billion in the next two years to support the
Agriculture department’s programs on rice sufficiency, production
support, irrigation and post-harvest facilities.
To cut government spending on
rice importation, the food authority scrapped the 50-percent duty
imposed on rice starting last month. Under the lifting,
commercial-rice traders will not pay the full duty, but only a
service fee of P2 per kilo of rice.
President Gloria Arroyo also
earlier lifted the country’s quota on rice imports.
At end-April, government
subsidies extended to government-owned and controlled corporations
and government financial institutions dropped 70 percent to P2.29
billion from P8.43 billion year on year.
This year, state subsidies are
programmed to reach P10.12 billion, compared with P27.33 billion
last year.
If the Philippine Rice Research
Institute (PhilRice) is to be believed, the country can attain
100-percent rice self-sufficiency by 2010 with a projected
production of palay (unhusked rice) reaching 19.70 million metric
tons, enough to feed the Philippines’ projected population of
94.89 million.
The PhilRice website revealed
that to attain a 100-percent sufficiency in rice by 2010, the
government has to spend P14.89 billion in 2009 and P14.97 billion in
2010 or a total of P29.857 billion.
Palay production this year is
projected at about 17 million metric tons for a population of about
89 million. At present, the country is 90-percent to 95-percent
sufficient in rice production.
“That’s even 100.74-percent
sufficiency level [for 2010]. Translating it to the terms of the
current daunting issue, it means the country will be freed from
scrambling for a rice-supply commitment from any member of the
cartelized rice trader in the region,” said Dr. Anselmo Roque of
PhilRice, referring to Asia.
The palay self-sufficiency plan
is called “Focusing on Increasing Provincial Productivity,”
which by its name will involve provinces named as “rice
champions,” according to the PhilRice website. The agency had
identified 49 provinces as “rice champions.”
Under the plan, each province
will get a support fund, and a P1-million incentive will be given to
the top three provinces that will exceed their palay production
targets.
The palay self-sufficiency plan
was formulated by a PhilRice team led by its executive director, Dr.
Leocadio Sebastian, along with current and former officials of the
Agriculture department, the International Rice Research Institute
and a number of local officials and other government agencies
involved in agriculture.
In a statement, Agriculture
Secretary Arthur Yap said the plan is “highly doable because the
planners themselves are teaming up to implement it.”
“Self-sufficiency in rice,
after all, is not a puzzle to us Filipinos. Not so long ago, we had
produced more than enough rice for ourselves, we even shared part of
our produce to the world,” Yap wrote in the plan’s foreword.
The amounts to be spent in 2009
and 2010 are on top of the P43-billion FIELDS initiative of
President Arroyo, where massive amounts of funds will be infused for
fertilizers, irrigation and other rural infrastructure, education
and training of farmers, dryers and other post-harvest facilities
and seeds of high-yielding varieties.
According to PhilRice, the
country can save up to $500 million annually from importing rice if
local rice production is boosted to self-sufficient levels.
--Chino S. Leyco And Conrad M. Cariño
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