Gov’t lost P 1.36B in Q2 due to pork tariff cut

President Duterte’s twin orders to reduce the tariffs on and raise the minimum access volume for pork resulted in revenue losses of P1.36 billion between April and June, the Bureau of Customs reported.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said he was expecting the losses to balloon to P11.2 billion by year-end, but also noted that consumers were projected to save P50.1 billion from the measures as these should lower pork prices in the market and ease food inflation.

Data showed that pork imports between April and early June, when the reduced tariff of 5 percent was already applied, accounted for 69 percent of the 110 million kilograms of swine meat that entered the country from January to June 11 this year.

In particular, 24.45 million kilos of pork arrived in the country in April, 36.5 million kilos in May, and 15.14 million kilos in early June.

Pork shipments in April were 500 percent higher than year-ago level, while shipments in May were also up by 506 percent from the same month last year.

Prices of imported pork in Metro Manila public markets, however, have been moving up and down for the past months.

In May, prices of frozen pork ham and pork belly hovered between P230 and P275 a kilo and P280 to P300 a kilo, respectively.

By the end of June, frozen pork ham was being sold at between P220 and P260 a kilo while the price of frozen pork belly was between P275 and P340 a kilo.

The problem, according to Jesus Cham, president of Meat Importers and Traders Association, is that traders are unlikely to pass on the savings from the reduced tariffs to retailers and consumers due to uncertainties in the shipment of future imports.

As for local pork, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed a lowering of prices for the last two months.

The nationwide average price for a kilo of local pork without bones stood at P351 in June against P359 in May. Local pork with bones was priced at P321 a kilo in June against P331 a kilo in May. INQ