A House hearing and investigation on the proposal to allow industrial producers to directly import bottlers’ grade sugar would be appropriate, Rep. Francisco Benitez (Neg. Occ., 3rd District) said on Monday, July 3.
Benitez said he expects the sugar importation issue to be tackled during the House Committee on Agriculture hearings on proposed amendments to Sugar Industry Development Act (SIDA).
“There will have to be a hearing and investigation in terms of what policy direction would be appropriate,” Benitez said.
The Committee on Agriculture inquiry into the SIDA amendments is expected to be held in Bacolod after the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on July 24, he said.
Benitez said there is a proposal to hike taxes on sweetened beverages and part of that increase will hit the industrial producers the most.
“In a way what they want to do is in order to offset the losses from the increase in taxes, is to be given an opportunity to import at one is to one,” Benitez said.
That means if they buy one ton of local sugar they will be allowed to directly import another one ton, he said.
“But that will still have consequences to the way in which we speculate on prices of sugar,” he said.
Generally there is really a shortage in the domestic production of industrial bottlers’ grade sugar, which is different from consumer market sugar, he said.
Benitez said his stand is no to sugar liberalization, but the importation of bottler’s grade sugar is not in itself a sugar liberalization move.
It is a way to deal with the constant up and down of bottlers’ grade sugar supply, he said.
“It will have to be studied for a solution to be found, as we also do not want factories or manufacturers to close down”, he said.*