January 22, 2015
Business World
By Alden Monzon
A PROPOSED measure seeking to make the sugarcane industry more competitive through government-funded programs and tax incentives has been approved at the bicameral level and is now awaiting the signature of the President.
“Our efforts to reinvigorate and revitalize the sugarcane industry through diversification, development, and financing programs for sugarcane farmers, planters, mill workers and consumers is (close to) becoming a law,” Senator Joseph Victor G. Ejercito said in Filipino in statement on Thursday.
Mr. Ejercito, author of the Senate Bill No. 1229, otherwise known as the Sugar Cane Industry Act of 2013, said that the bill approved last month will ensure the successful development of the industry, which contributes more than P70 billion pesos annually to the Philippine economy, according to data from the private sector.
The senator said that bill will ensure not just the continued production of raw and refined sugar but also the manufacturing of other by-products from sugarcane including bagasse, molasses and filter mud.
Additionally, Mr. Estrada said that diversification will allow the local industry to venture into bioenergy and develop biofuels, biomass power and other biochemicals.
Francisco D. Varua, President of the Philippine Sugar Miller’s Association, Inc. (PSMA) said that the approval of the measure is a welcome development, allowing local players to become more competitive globally.
“It will help the sugar industry face the lower tariffs for 2015,” Mr. Varua told BusinessWorld in a phone interview.
According to the proposed measure, tax incentives for sugarcane farmers and mill workers will be implemented via the designation of Agro-Industrial Economic Zones for the sugar industry.
In the Sugarcane Industry Roadmap 2011-2016 of the PSMA, it is projected that the sector could further develop into a P100-billion industry if measures to diversify are successful.
Reference: http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Economy&title=sugar-cane...