NEDA chief backs 5% tariff for fish, meat
SOCIOECONOMIC Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia supports lowering tariffs for fish and meat imports to 5 percent to help contain the country’s rising inflation.
According to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director general, if these tariffs are lowered and the consolidated rice tariffication measure—House Bill 7735, or “An Act Replacing the Quantitative Import Restrictions on Rice with Tariffs and Creating the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund”—is enacted, inflation will dip by at least 1 percent.
Inflation for July rose to 5.7 percent. Tariff for fish is 10 percent; meat, between 10 percent and 40 percent; and pork and corn, 35 percent.
Pernia said inflation, which he predicted would taper off by the third quarter of 2018, was an immediate concern.
“In general, rice is the most dominant (staple) in the country’s food basket. But if too much tariffs (on these commodities) are removed, it can help a lot” in containing inflation, he told reporters in an interview.
Congress can allow the tariffs to be lowered until inflation returns to 2 percent to 4 percent, probably by next year, the NEDA chief said.
“Lower tariffs, especially [on]fish, are no longer needed when inflation goes back to its normal level,” he added.
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