Economic team mulling another extension of EO on reduced tariffs —Diokno

The Marcos administration’s economic team is now reviewing the possibility of further extending the reduced import duties on various commodities to keep inflation tamed amid recent local and international developments.

“We’re reviewing the possible extension. We have to extend. Across all commodities,” Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno told reporters at his weekly press chat.

Signed on December 29, 2022, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. issued Executive Order No. 10, which extended until December 31, 2023 the reduced tariff rates on the following commodities:

• Meat of swine, fresh, chilled, or frozen at 15% (in-quota) and 25% (out-quota)
• Corn at 5% (in-quota) and 15% (out-quota)
• Rice at 35% (in-quota and out-quota)
• Coal at zero duty

At the same media roundtable, Finance Undersecretary Zeno Abenoja said the Inter-agency Committee on Inflation and Market Outlook (IAC-IMO) “has already started reviewing all these items… given the recent developments, typhoon and outside developments.”

“The IAC-IMO reviews both food and non-food sources of inflation,” Abenoja said.

Inflation or the rate of increase in the prices of consumer goods and services continued its downtrend for the sixth straight month in July, clocking in at 4.7% from 5.4% in June and its lowest in 16 months since the 4% print in March 2022 amid slower movements in utility, food, and transport prices.

The IAC-IMO is a body created by Marcos Jr. to craft strategies to mitigate inflation in the country and to keep it within the government’s target range of 2% to 4%.

The inter-agency body is co-chaired by the secretaries of the Department of Finance (DOF) and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), while the Secretary of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) serves as the vice-chairperson.

Members of the IAC-IMO include the Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

The DOF serves as the committee’s Secretariat.

“We [DOF] are participating in that review.. We don’t want to pre-empt the result of that review [as] it involves both the industry and other private sector participation,” Abenoja said.

The EO 10 extended further the EO 171, issued by former President Rodrigo Duterte, which extended the effectivity of the reduced tariff rates under EO Nos. 134 and 135, and reduced the tariff rates on cord and coal until December 31, 2022.

Meanwhile, EO Nos. 134 and 135 temporarily modified the rates of import duty on meat of swine (fresh chilled or frozen) until May 17, 2022 and rice until June 1, 2022. — BM, GMA Integrated News