House Bill 6113 or the Sugarcane Industry Development Act of 2012 was approved by the House Committee on Ways and Means yesterday, its author Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez (Neg. Occ., 3rd District) said.

The bill is geared towards revitalizing and strengthening the sugarcane industry through diversification, development and financing programs to cushion if not counter, destabilization effects of the lifting of tariffs on imported sugar entering the Philippines by 2015, he said.

“The bill was approved by the Committee on Ways and Means immediately because we did our homework,” Benitez said.

The House Committee on Agriculture and Food approved the bill in June.

Benitez said the bill will be heard next by the House Committee on Appropriations, which could be delayed until October because of the budget hearings.

A similar measure in the Senate authored by Senator Francis Escudero is also moving. Benitez said he expects the bill to be approved by the House on second and third reading by November, and passed into law by the end of the year.

Benitez said the bill aims to raise the value of sugarcane by helping mills produce not only sugar, but fuel, power, alcohol and other by-products, to enable the industry to survive trade liberalization beyond 2015.

Under the ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement tariff on imported sugar entering the country dropped from 38 percent last year to 28 percent this year. It will further drop to 18 percent in 2013, 10 percent in 2014 and 5 percent in 2015.

House Bill 6113 aims to establish a Sugarcane Industry Development Fund to be collected from the proceeds of 15 percent of the Value Added Tax on the sale and importation of refined sugar and sugarcane by-products and the total tariff collected on the importation of raw, refined and premix sugar.

All the proceeds collected will be remitted in full by the Department of Finance to a separate trust to be maintained by the Philippine Sugar Corp. to fund among others the establishment of Special Economic Zones for the sugar industry and agro industrial districts.

The fund is also geared toward providing assistance to sugar cane farmers, planters and mills to boost production, efficiency and diversification, for research and development, for socio economic programs, and scholarships for students taking degrees relevant to the sugarcane industry.*CPG

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