THE BUREAU of Customs (BoC) expects the implementation of rice tariff cuts to hurt its revenue collection this year, its chief said.
“Definitely, there’s an impact on our collection on revenue for rice importations because reducing the tariff rate from 35% to 15%, even if the same volume arrives, you’re basically reducing 20% of what we should have collected. So, there’s an impact,” Customs Commissioner Bienvenido Y. Rubio told reporters on the sidelines of a Senate hearing late on Tuesday.
Since the start of the year, the BoC has collected P29 billion in tariffs from rice importations, he said.
In June, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. issued Executive Order No. 62, cutting tariffs on rice imports to 15% from the current 35% until 2028.
Mr. Rubio recognized the need to reduce tariffs to make rice prices more affordable to the public.
“If we lose revenues, at least the (tariff) reduction will cause the price of rice to be reduced,” he said.
In the first half of the year, Customs collected P456.04 billion, exceeding its P442.62-billion goal for the period by 3.03%.
The BoC expects to collect P939.69 billion in 2024 and P1.06 trillion in 2025.
“If the imports arrive, we will do a proper assessment duties and taxes so we can collect them,” Mr. Rubio said in mixed English and Filipino.
During the Senate hearing before the Development Budget Coordination Committee on Tuesday, Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto said that tariff cuts are temporarily implemented while the government works on scaling up productivity in the agriculture sector.
“Today, we’re importing roughly 20% of our demand, so if we’re importing that much, it would be appropriate to reduce our tariffs while we are increasing production,” he said.
Rice prices are expected to go down to below P50 per kilogram by end-August, the Finance chief said. — BMDC
