The House Committee on Agriculture and Food yesterday approved House Bill 6113 or the Sugarcane Industry Development Act of 2012, which was earlier passed on first reading in the House of Representatives, its author Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez (Neg. Occ., 3rd District) said yesterday.

The committee, chaired by Rep. Mark Llandro Mendoza (Batangas, 4th District), approved the bill subject to style, which means some of its wordings will have to be revised to be more precise, Benitez said.

The bill, however, still needs to pass the Committee on Ways and Means because of its tax provisions, he added.

Representatives of various government agencies and the sugarcane industry stakeholders attended the hearing held at the Ramon Mitra Hall of the House of Representatives yesterday morning.

Aside from Benitez and Mendoza, other solons present were Alejando Mirasol (Neg. Occ., 5th District), Jocelyn Limkaichong (Neg. Or., 1st District), Pryde Henry Teves (Neg. Or., 3rd District), Robert Raymund Estrella (Partylist ABONO), Jun Omar Ebdane (Zambales, 2nd District) and Cresente Paez (Partylist - COOP NATCCO).

The House Committee on Agriculture and Food approved the bill subject to style, which means some of its wordings will have to be revised to be more precise, Benitez said.

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

After the Committee on Agriculture, the bill will be heard by the House Committee on Ways and Means because it has a tax aspect, Benitez said

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.

Benitez said after the House Committee on Ways and Means hearings he expects the bill to be pass on second reading when Congress resumed its sessions in July, and he hopes to get it approved in the House on third and final reading before the year ends.

Last week Senator Francis Escudero filed a counterpart Sugarcane Industry Development Act of 2012 bill in the Senate that is also moving, he said.

The sugarcane act aims to transform the sugarcane industry from merely producing sugar, to the production of power, fuel and other possible biochemical products, he added.

Programs and projects to diversify sugarcane production should not only involve raw and refined sugar but also its by-products such as bagasse, molasses and filter mud that shall be identified, developed, promoted and implemented starting 2013, he said.

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.

Concern has been raised that the entry of cheaper highly-subsidized imported sugar into the country when tariffs drop will kill the domestic sugar industry, which produces sugar at higher costs.*CPG

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