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[av_heading heading=’WE WON THE FIGHT VSCORN SYRUP – ZUBIRI Probe on illegal import, price manipulation continues ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
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BACOLOD City – “We won the fight against the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS),” Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri said in a news conference yesterday at Nature’s Village Resort in Talisay City, Negros Occidental.
Zubiri – who was in the province to meet several local chief executives and stakeholders of the sugar industry – said the excise tax on the HFCS is P12, which is 50 percent higher compared to that of other sugar substitutes, under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) bill.
The rate was one of the contested issues of the provisions of the TRAIN bill, according to Zubiri, with some senators wanting to make the tax rate on sugar and sugar substitutes the same at P3.
If that was going to be the case, Zubiri argued that the domestic sugar industry will suffer.
HFCS is relatively cheaper, that is why companies choose it over domestic sugar, he said.
Taxing the HFCS and the locally produced sugar with the same rate will only make the situation worse, making the sugar industry in the country “dead”, Zubiri added.
“But we are successful to fight the parity and we doubled the price [of the HFCS excise tax],” Zubiri stressed.
The importation of HFCS in the country has adverse effects to the local sugar industry. The effects can now be felt as the market value of sugar continues to slide down.
Some sugar industry stakeholders have said the price may continue to drop even at its peak months due to the low starting price of sugar during its milling season in September this year.
Some sugar plantation owners were forced to cut their production costs to adopt to the sugar price drop.
Atty. Dino Yulo, board member of the Sugar Regulatory Administration, said there is an ongoing investigation on the alleged undocumented importation of HFCS in the country.
He added that the probe will also look into the “manipulation of the local sugar price.”
The results of the investigation will be recommended to the Bureau of Customs for further verification by cross matching their figures.
“We hope that this is going to translate to a corresponding price increase of the locally produced sugar,” Yulo said./PN
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