Head Topics

Where coherent policymaking goes to die

  • 📰 TheManilaTimes
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 26 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 14%
  • Publisher: 92%

Philippines Headlines News

Philippines Latest News,Philippines Headlines

ONLY in the Philippines can we find rice price caps coexisting side by side with the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL). Rice price caps represent the desperate, knee-jerk side of government economic intervention. The RTL is free market run amok; it mindlessly scrapped the quantitative restriction on the only commodity covered by a QR — rice — then lowered the rice tariffs on imports from quota countries (Asean). It then expanded the lower rice tariffs to include countries outside of the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), primarily India and Pakistan.As Rudyard Kipling once wrote, 'never the twain shall meet.' You can't have the two policies cohabiting under one roof because of their contradictory intent, divergent philosophical grounding and impact on the market. The two are never mixed up by a government where policymaking is guided by rational thinking and solid economics.The government can't mix up market interventionist policies like price caps with what are, at the fundamental level, unfettered free market policies like the RTL. By doing so, the government creates losers all around. That precisely happened right after the imposition of the price caps.Farmgate prices of palay (unmilled rice) dropped right after the caps took effect by at least P4 per kilo, thereby turning the rice farmers from 'dead men walking' to 'deader than dead.' There is no profit margin under the current depressed farmgate price, and always remember this: rice farming is an undertaking that does not factor in a cost for the labor of the rice farmer. Under the current farmgate prices, the rice farmer piles up calluses on his malnourished hands for nothing.Rice importers, whose sole operating philosophy is profit, have threatened to quit importing rice, and many more, reports say, have canceled orders. This will have two grim results. One is further supply tightening and the other is the inevitable pricing surge. Retailers, especially the small ones, are selling at a loss under dure

ss, cursing whoever they can curse to high heavens.What the consumer will get is temporary relief. The price caps are Band-Aid — or Curitas if you will — on a supply of cancer. Soon, the harsh reality of tight supply and high prices will make a comeback, and rice consumers will find out that the price cap was nothing but this: a short-term relief to be followed by years of pain.

The wealth of a nation — this is textbook economics — is built on its level of education and its people's state of health. The two are hollowed-out sectors.Extracting money from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines to seed the MIF is both ill-advised and dangerous. And unprecedented. All SWFs get funding from excess state earnings, of which we have none, and surplus money from resource extraction, which is nonexistent.

Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 2. in PH

Philippines Latest News, Philippines Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

WATCH: Govt aids rice retailers affected by rice price capLocal Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr., Caloocan City Mayor Dale Gonzalo Malapitan, Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo Pascual, San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora, Social Welfare and Development Assistant Secretary Ada Colinco, Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa lead the initial payout of DSWD's Sustainable Livelihood Program For Qualified Micro Rice Retailers affected by Executive Order 39 at Maypajo Market in Caloocan and Agora Public Market in San Juan City on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. issued EO 39, setting a price cap on rice.
Source: TheManilaTimes - 🏆 2. / 92 Read more »

Source: DoF’s Magno quits over rice price ceilingFinance Undersecretary for Fiscal Policy and Monitoring Group Cielo Magno Finance Undersecretary for Fiscal Policy and Monitoring Group Cielo Magno
Source: MlaStandard - 🏆 20. / 55 Read more »

Comply with price cap, Quezon rice retailers urgedLUCENA CITY, Quezon – Two Quezon congressmen asked retailers in this province to comply with the rice price cap under Executive Order No. 39 issued by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
Source: manilabulletin - 🏆 25. / 51 Read more »

Region 2 markets inspected for rice price cap complianceThe Department of Agriculture (DA)-2 inspected markets in Cagayan Valley or Region 2 to check compliance with the rice price cap under Executive Order No. 39 issued by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
Source: manilabulletin - 🏆 25. / 51 Read more »

‘ASEAN, East Asia partners must boost food security’Jakarta—President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Wednesday emphasized the need for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its
Source: MlaStandard - 🏆 20. / 55 Read more »

EO triggers drop in rice pricesSpeaker: Cancellations of PH imports lead to 21% fall in world prices Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez on Thursday declared
Source: MlaStandard - 🏆 20. / 55 Read more »