Hike in rice prices didn't cause inflation —Piñol

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol on Thursday claimed the increase in the price of rice was not the cause of the recent acceleration in inflation.

Piñol made the remark during the budget briefing of the Department of Agriculture with the House Committee on Appropriations.

"Yung pagtaas ng presyo ng bigas is not the cause of inflation," Piñol told the members of the panel.

"In fact, it is a victim of inflation [dahil sa] pagtaas ng presyo ng fuel," he added.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that inflation in June clocked in at 5.2 percent, the fastest in at least five years using 2012 as base year.

"It was primarily brought about by higher annual rate posted in the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages index at 6.1 percent," the PSA said.

It added that the food index alone went up by 5.8 percent, nearly twice higher than the 3.1-percent increase in June 2017 because of higher mark-ups in several food groups, such as rice at 4.7 percent.

According to Piñol, the price of rice increased because rice production in the country is still low.

The cost of rice production is also high, and rice smugglers and hoarders continue to proliferate across the country, he added.

Piñol also said that while there is enough supply of rice in the country, it remains costly due to the high buying price of businessmen.

The agriculture secretary is expecting that cost of rice production will become lower with the passage of the proposed rice tariffication law.

The measure seeks to put safety nets to Filipino rice producers by imposing tariffs instead of quantitative restrictions on rice imports.

Piñol estimated that the country would generate P20-billion worth of revenue annually with the enactment of this measure.

"With P20 billion every year, we can subsidize farmers," he said, adding that the rice production cost would be reduced by P7.

The proposed rice tariffication law is currently on second reading at the House of Representatives. —JST, GMA News