Bacolod City – Acting on the complaints of sugar producers on the entry of “other sugars” in the country, estimated at an annual volume of 200,000 to 300,000 metric tons, the Sugar Regulatory Administration is looking into the possibility of requiring importers to seek an import clearance from SRA.
Manuel Lamata, president of the United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED), recently sought the help of Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel to investigate the unregulated entry of premixes in staggering quantities over the past several years, which he blamed for the stagnant demand for sugar in the past decade.
“This volume of sugar premixes represents about 4 million bags of sugar, amounting to roughly P10 billion, and the continued lack of regulation for these sugar based products is highly detrimental to the sugar industry,” according to Lamata.
SRA head Pablo Luis Azcona, who attended the House committee on Agriculture and Food public hearing recently, in connection with the proposed amendments to RA 10659, known as the Sugar Industry Development Act of 2015, in Talisay City, Negros Occidental, said they will first check the actual volume of the sugar-based products entering the country.
Once we have the actual volume, we will plan on what to do next, Azcona said.
Under tariff code 17.02 of the Asean Harmonized Tariff Nomenclature (AHTN), only high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is strictly regulated, when the sugar industry demanded that products using this sweetener must be taxed higher, after a slump in sugar demand a few years back.
However, other sugars like glucose, sucrose, maltose, dextrose, maltodextrin, and lactose among others, are not being regulated and before we knew it, we received reports that they are coming in, in staggering amounts, Lamata said.
Azcona said the government source of income on “other sugars”, which is being used by industrial users for food and drinks, is only through the imposition of Value Added Tax (VAT), which is being taxed, unlike sugar.
“So, a very unfair advantage for the sugar industry,” he stressed.
“Other sugars” come in the form of many names, such as “white sweet powder,” which is 88 percent bottler grade sugar and 12 percent glucose, Azcona said.
In our rules, everything above 65 percent is considered sugar, which had been neglected for a long, long time. Finally, we will act on it, he added.
Asked if it will be regulated, Azcona said the “regulation side is something we will plan. If we are mandated to do so, we can. There is no problem.”
For now, we will get the actual volume first. The most accurate way is to require them to get an import clearance from SRA, which has to certify that it can come in if it is considered as sugar, Azcona added.
If this is not addressed, Lamata said the sugar industry will be paying a hefty price, along with the five million Filipinos dependent on the industry.
In more than 10 years, Azcona and Lamata noted demand for sugar has remained constant, despite the growth of the population.
“Other sugars,” according to initial investigations of the SRA, originate from Vietnam, Azcona said.
The General Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA) also expressed its support to the move of SRA to look into the actual volumes of “other sugars” entering the country amid reports of unregulated entry of premixes.
“It is high time that the govt. should evaluate the volume of other artificial sugar coming into the country,” GAWA secretary general Wennie Sancho said. (Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star)