Sugar leaders yesterday thanked President Benigno Aquino for approving the Sugarcane Industry Development Act, and the lawmakers who authored the measure.

Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez (Neg. Occ., 3 rd District), author of the measure in the House, said the President signed it into law on March 27.

The law will provide a P2 billion annual allocation for programs to strengthen the competitiveness and diversification efforts of the sugarcane industry, to survive the drop in tariffs on imports under the ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement that kicked off this year.

Enrique Rojas, president of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, said, “We thank President Aquino for approving the Sugarcane Act which we expect will lead to the successful implementation of the sugar industry roadmap to survive the threats of  trade liberalization.”

With the passage of the law, they also hope the Value-Added Tax on raw sugar and other problems that the Bureau of Internal Revenue has been  imposing on the sugar industry, can also be acted on, he said.

Instead of helping us survive the threats of AFTA, the BIR has been burdening our small farmers with more problems, Rojas said.

“It is now up to government and industry leaders to ensure the correct implementation of the law so that its benefits will be felt by our thousands of marginalized farmers and agrarian reform beneficiaries,” he added.
Francis de la Rama, chairman of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations Negros-Panay chapter, and Manuel Lamata, United Sugar Producers' Federation of the Philippines president, thanked Benitez and Senator Cynthia Villar for pushing for the passage of the Sugarcane Act.

De La Rama also acknowledged the support of Sugar Regulatory Administration chief Ma. Regina Martin for painstakingly working with the government towards the approval by Aquino of the Sugarcane Act.

“Surely this will boost the development of our industry amidst the open world market scenario,” he added.

Meanwhile, Martin said BIR Commissioner Kim Henares is expected to publish a new revenue regulation today to summarize the issues on the imposition of VAT on raw sugar.

The imposition of VAT will be moved from April to May 1, she said.*CPG

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