MANILA – The Philippine government’s bid to liberalize importation of some basic commodities is targeted to ensure sufficient supply and address inflation upticks but businessmen still need to go through the proper paperwork, the country’s Budget chief said.
“The main objective of the government now is to make the importation for these goods as painless as possible, less bureaucratic as possible because we really need to control inflation,” Budget and Management secretary Bemjamin Diokno said in a briefing.
In the long run, the streamlining of requirements will cut processing time and improve ease of doing business in the country, he said.
Domestic inflation surpassed the government’s 2 to 4 percent target since March this year, due mainly to supply-side factors affecting rice, vegetable, fish and meat, among others.
The other major contributor to faster inflation was the increase and more effective implementation of sin taxes.
In September alone, inflation rose to multiyear high of 6.7 percent from month-ago’s 6.4 percent, bringing the nine-month average to 5 percent.
To address supply constraints, Malacañang has issued several Memorandum Orders (MOs) directing the various agencies to ensure that supply will be available nationwide.
As for rice, the National Food Authority (NFA) has been tasked to release all its stocks stored in warehouses all over the country.
Authorities said these measures are expected to address rising inflation and to bring it to within-target levels next year.
Diokno, however, added that amid plans to relax importation rules, importers of rice, onion, garlic and chicken, among others, will still be required to have sanitary and phytosanitary permits.
“That issue has been resolved. We will adopt almost unimpeded except for the sanitary and phyto (sanitary permits),” he said.
He said economic managers are now “looking at the Tariff Commission as the venue for simplifying the requirements.”
Under the plan, businessmen need to prove to the Department of Agriculture (DA) their ability to finance the importation and that they have access to warehouses where these items can be stored upon arrival into the country.
Representatives from the Bureau of Customs, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority will then make sure that there will be no delay in the delivery of the goods from ports to their destination, he added. (PNA)
