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Rice retailers manage their stalls at Marikina Public Market on January 7, 2025.
STAR / Michael Varcas
MANILA, Philippines — The Tariff Commission (TC) will conduct a public hearing this month to discuss the petition of an industry group seeking to revert the prevailing tariffs on imported rice to higher rates.
The TC has issued a notice of public hearing yesterday on the petition filed by the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG).
The industry group wants the rice tariff to revert to 35 percent for in-quota imports and 50 percent for out-quota imports.
At present, rice tariffs are at 15 percent, the lowest in history, because of President Marcos’ Executive Order (EO) 62.
The TC set the hearing on March 28 at 10 a.m. and will be conducted via videoconferencing. It gave interested parties until April 4 to submit their position papers regarding the proposed tariff modification.
“Interested parties shall be afforded theopportunity to be present and present evidence in support of their position/s relative to the petition for tariff modification,” the TC said.
SINAG earlier said that it formalized its request to the TC to revert the rice tariff rates last March 3. The group claimed that the lower rice tariff rate did not result in cheaper staple in the market as promised by the government.
The group pointed out that the declaration of a food security emergency on rice and the imposition of a maximum suggested retail price on the staple were “admissions” that EO 62, particularly the lower tariff rate, failed in addressing high rice prices.
The 15-percent rice tariff took effect last July and is subjected to a regular review by the government every four months.
The first review was done last November 2024 with officials deciding to retain the lower tariff rate. The next review of the rice tariff is scheduled this month.
Various industry groups have earlier claimed that rice importers and wholesalers pocketed more profit because of the lower tariff rate without passing the savings to consumers.
Some government officials have even admitted that the goal of the tariff reduction did not materialize as expected due to prevailing market dynamics wherein certain players dominate the rice trade.
The average price of imported well-milled rice in Metro Manila stood at P44.36 per kilo as of March 13, while its regular-milled counterpart was estimated at P40.88 per kilo, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
DA data showed that the average price of imported premium rice, which is widely consumed by the public, was at P50.49 per kilo.
