House bill amending Rice Tariffication Law hurdles 3rd reading
MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives approved on third and final reading the bill that aims to amend the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).
About 230 lawmakers voted for House Bill 10381, three against and one abstained.
Under the bill, the National Food Authority (NFA) is empowered to require all grain warehouses to be registered; and inspect warehouses «to ensure compliance with standards related to rice quality and supply.»
The bill provides conditions to declare a food security emergency: rice supply shortage; «sustained increase in the price of rice;» or «extraordinary increase in the price of rice.»
In these cases, the bill allows the NFA to: use inventory, primarily meant for buffer stocking, to supply places where the extraordinary price increase or acute supply shortages occurred; replenish the inventory used from available local sources; if there are no available local sources, resort to importation upon written concurrence by the secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA); and maintain a buffer fund up to half of the allocation meant for calamities «to be availed of and utilized only to replace the volume of rice inventory utilized for the purpose.»
The bill states that the NFA could source rice buffer stocks from farmers organizations/associations/cooperatives in connection with its mandate to maintain sufficient rice buffer stocks.
The bill also states that the NFA shall be authorized to buy local milled rice as needed to fulfill its mandate.
Advertisement«In case the alternative supply arrangements are not sufficient to address the minimum buffer stock requirements or in case of extraordinary circumstances, the NFA shall, upon written concurrence of the [DA secretary], be given the option to purchase up to a maximum of thirty percent (30%) of rice brought in by an accredited importer at the cost, insurance, and freight landed price declared by the importer based on customs documents», the bill read.
«As a final recourse, once all domestic sources have been exhausted, the NFA shall be granted the authority to directly import rice, subject to the explicit» written concurrence and authorization from the DA secretary, the bill stated.
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