Zubiri urges NFA to bare rice traders granted duty-free imports

MANILA, Philippines - Former senator Juan Miguel Zubiri has called on the National Food Authority (DFA) to disclose its list of 19 traders that would be granted duty-free importations of rice as part of transparency.

Zubiri expressed his concern that two of the rice importers could be among the tax evaders charged by the Bureau of Internal Revenue. In order to ensure that none of these tax cheats would be among those granted the privilege of importing rice duty-free, Zubiri said the NFA should reveal the identities of all 19 traders.

“It would be in the public’s best interest for the names of the 19 entities to be fully disclosed, along with their controlling owners,” Zubiri said.        

“This will ensure transparency in the NFA’s plan to allow a new round of private sector-financed rice importation, which we presume are required to secure the country’s supply of the staple,” he added.

Each of the 19 traders would be allowed to import 10,000 metric tons of rice after a bidding process to determine who would get the duty-free import authority.

Out of the 190,000 MTs of rice to be initially imported by the private sector, the NFA said 110,000 MTs would enter through Luzon ports while the rest would go through the docks in the Visayas and Mindanao.

The NFA plans to import up to 500,000 MTs of rice this year, 380,000 MTs of which would be brought in by the private sector. This is down from the 860,000 MTs imported last year, out of which 660,000 MTs were brought in by private traders.

“It would indeed be ironic if government will be granting certain entities the concession to import rice, only to discover later that some of them have been remiss in paying their tax obligations,” Zubiri said.

He noted that one of two rice traders charged by the BIR accumulated P135 million in back taxes.

The other trader imported P183 million worth of rice but was found to have understated his taxable income by over P100 million.