MANILA, Philippines — Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo vowed to push for the passage of the rice tariffication bill to curb inflation, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

Arroyo met recently with President Duterte’s economic team on the sidelines of the briefing of the interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) for the 2019 national budget at the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said Arroyo committed to rally support for the passage of the second part of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program – more popularly known as TRAIN 2 – which lowers corporate income taxes and rationalizes fiscal incentives for businesses.

“She promised to push the approval of rice tariffication and TRAIN 2, and asked us to do something effective regarding inflation,” Pernia said.

NEDA has been pushing for the immediate passage of the rice tariffication bill, stressing the liberalization of rice importation can slash one percentage point off headline inflation which is expected to remain within the five percent level until the third quarter.

Pernia said based on NEDA’s preliminary estimate, headline inflation rate would be reduced by one percentage point if the domestic wholesale market reduces its price to the level of imported rice.

The passage of the bill into law would pave the way for the removal of the QR on rice imports and the imposition of the 35 percent tariff rate instead.

The QR on rice imports is a special privilege granted by the World Trade Organization (WTO), which has been extended three times since it was first imposed in 1995.

This entails restricting the volume of inbound rice shipments to 805,200 metric tons (MT) at 35 percent tariff. Imports outside of this minimum access volume (MAV) are levied higher tariffs.