Bacolod City – Sugar planter’s groups are strongly opposing the call of Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno to allow industrial users to directly import their sugar needs, as a concession to plans of increasing taxes on sweetened beverages.
In a statement, Manuel Lamata, president of the United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED), said they are “totally against the move of Diokno to liberalize importation in favor of a few industrial users.”
Enrique Rojas, president of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP), in separate statement said “allowing manufacturers of sweetened beverages to directly import sugar will wreak havoc on the long-established government regulations over the sugar industry, and it will further destabilize the livelihood of thousands of marginal sugarcane farmers.”
Under the present system, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) regulates the importation of sugar and determines the volume to be imported, after assessing the local industry’s capability to satisfy the country’s consumption demands.
Stressing that Diokno only wants to further enrich industrial users, Lamata said the move to liberalize importation will kill the livelihoods more than five million Filipinos who are dependent on the sugar industry.
In a press briefing recently, Diokno saw liberalizing or allowing manufacturers of sweetened beverages to directly import their sugar or sweetener requirements, as a “reasonable compromise” to the government plan to increase duties and broaden the tax base for sweetened beverages.
Lamata, who claimed that Diokno is ill-advised, said they are seeking the intervention of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. against the move, stressing that there was no consultation with the sugar industry.
The Department of Finance is planning to increase the beverage tax rate under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law to P12 per liter, regardless of the type of sweetener used, remove exemptions, and index the rate by four percent yearly.
“He (Diokno) wants to further enrich these industrial users, even knowing that this move will kill the more than 5 million Filipinos who are dependent on the sugar industry,” Lamata said.
Diokno is bent only on raising taxes, without thinking of its effects on the sugar farmers, he added.
“We know President Marcos’ heart is with and for the farmers as he has told us so, and we are calling for his intervention on this matter,” Lamata said.
Rojas also recalled that soft drink manufacturers freely imported high fructose corn sugar as sweetener for their products in 2016 and 2017, causing the drastic drop in mill gate sugar prices to almost below production levels, and numerous farmers suffered losses.
Worse, the use of cheaper imported sweetener input by these manufacturers simply fattened their pockets more, but it did not translate to lower prices of soft drink products for consumers, Rojas stressed.
We have learned our lessons, he further said.
Lamata, on the other hand, said “Diokno is clearly anti-farmer.” (Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star (TVDS), photo courtesy of TVDS)
