MANILA – Prices of cement may increase if the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) pushes through with its plan to impose safeguard duty on imported cement.
The DTI said imposing safeguard duty on imported cement will protect local cement manufacturers, but according to the Philippine Constructors Association (PCA), local manufacturers do not need such protection as they still gain a lot of profit.
“Natural lang na tataas ang presyo ng semento dahil ang puhunan ay tataas din, so yan ho ang isang concern ng PCA. Magkaroon ng shortage tapos magkaroon ng pagkulang ng semento, madedelay po lahat ng ‘Build, Build, Build’ projects,” Ferdinand Co, PCA director said.
With the numerous infrastructure projects under the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program, as well as the construction of various condominiums, houses, commercial buildings, the PCA said that there is a need for imported cement as local manufacturers could not meet the demand.
However, even though the DTI is just considering the possibility of imposing new taxes on imported cement, importers are already hesitant to import cement.
“Importers are starting to be reluctant to place an order of incoming cement because we might be caught with a sudden imposition of provisional safeguard measure,” said Napoleon Co, president of the Philippine Cement Importers Association.
DTI, for its part, said there is no movement in cement prices yet.
“Wala pa tayong movement but DTI is investigating it. We have to check also kung tama ba ‘yung income,‘yung revenue na nakukuha ng government dito sa mga importer na ito, and of course, ‘yung standard ng semento,” said DTI undersecretary Ruth Castelo. (GMA News)
