MANILA – Senator Ralph Recto yesterday said “fair treatment” and “extreme caution” should be applied by the Bureau of Internal Revenue  in disciplining business establishments since some of them could be micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Recto said while the BIR’s zealousness in running after tax recalcitrants is commendable, the revenue agency should be circumspect in deciding which erring store should be shut or not.

“Of the latest batch that was shut down by the BIR, I can see that most of them could qualify under the MSMEs sector, which is the subject of protection by our existing laws,” Recto, chair of the Senate ways and means committee, said.

RP rice output falls

MANILA - Rice output in the Philippines, the world's largest importer of the grain, fell last year as the country's farms were hit by a drought and typhoons, the agriculture department said yesterday.

The  Bureau of Agricultural Statistics said the bad weather also led to a fall in the output of coconuts, a key export for the sector.

Grain production was hit hard by weak rains in the first nine months of 2010, with unmilled rice output falling 3.04 percent from a year earlier to 15.77 million tons, the bureau said in a report.

NFA collects
P2.9M from permits

The National Food Authority collected more than P2.9 million from business permit fees of grain retailers, wholesalers, millers and warehouses operating in Negros Occidental in 2010, NFA licensing officer Melvyn Redil said yesterday.

Redil said they issued licenses to 2,251 establishments in Negros Occidental, with grain retailers comprising the most number at 1,862 operators, she added.

NFA is expecting the same number of applicants this year to renew their business permits.

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