Salceda urges monitoring of high fructose corn syrup imports

House ways and means committee chairperson Joey Salceda on Thursday said he will form a working group with concerned government agencies to monitor the importation of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) imports.

Salceda issued the statement a day after President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. rejected the proposal to import 300,000 metric tons (MT) of sugar.

"150,000 MT of the proposed 300,000 MT was supposed to be for bottler’s grade sugar, or sugar that sweetened beverage makers use.  Of course, absent such imports, the beverage makers will likely resort to other sweeteners, such as high fructose corn syrup," Salceda, an economist, said.

"As such, I will be forming a working group with the Department of Finance, the Bureau of Customs, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and the Food and Drug Administration to track HFCS imports from beverage makers, and ensure that the import volumes make sense with their tax payments on sweetened beverages," he added.

Salceda said HFCS-sweetened beverages are taxed with higher excise tax rates at P12 per liter compared to the sugar-sweetened beverages at P6 per liter.  He said such higher taxes should benefit the domestic sugar sector.

"I expect higher revenues from sweetened beverages as a result of this temporary shift, and those revenues can be used to enhance the domestic sugar industry," Salceda pointed out.

Salceda also noted that the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar at this time would coincide with the harvest season.

"[I] instead propose that major sugar imports be timed during leaner months, while imports during harvest season be in more carefully considered tranches. Before a sugar import order is considered, its effects on sugar farmers should be considered, and mitigating measures should already be proposed," he said.

"I hope that the DA (Department of Agriculture) senior staff can propose a better-formulated schedule of imports and a package of mitigating measures to the President as soon as possible," he added.

Likewise, the lawmaker said the Sugar Regulatory Administration and the Department of Budget and Management should explain why there were very few sugar development programs implemented despite the mandate of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law to earmark part of the revenues from sweetened beverages towards the development of the local sugar sector.

Salceda suggested that the president pursue programs to ensure that the domestic harvest, which should begin around August, will be efficiently milled and processed to avoid wastage.

"We should look at the implementation of the Sugar Industry Development Act, particularly the P2 billion annual mandated appropriations for the programs under that law," he said.

On the demand side, Salceda said the National Biofuels Board can also exempt sugarcane from being among the sources of biofuels required to be added to domestic petroleum under the Biofuels Law.

In addition, Salceda said he is hopeful that Vice President Sara Duterte, who is also serving as Education Secretary, will ban soft drinks in public schools as they are unhealthy and, given the current circumstances, uneconomical.—LDF, GMA News