Tax-exemption for makers of organic fertilizers sought
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund “LRay” Villafuerte Jr. has filed a bill seeking to exempt all local manufacturers of organic fertilizers from the payment of all kinds of taxes or imposts within a period of five years.

(MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
Under House Bill No. 8090, he called on the government to extend the necessary incentives for the production and use of organic fertilizers.
“This bill recognizes that it is about time to abandon agricultural practices that are cheap, easy, and quick that are ultimately destructive of the soil and the Philippine waters. Hence, the State must extend its support to the use of organic fertilizers,” Villafuerte said.
“The bill aims to ease the tax burden of all local manufacturers of organic fertilizers by mandating that they shall be exempt from the payment of all kinds of taxes or imposts whether local or national within a period of five years, provided that the exemption shall cover any equipment, material, components, supplies, used directly in the production and distribution of such product and the income service from such activity,” he added.
He said under HB 8090, local manufacturers shall enjoy preferential treatment from government-owned or -controlled banking or financial institutions in the processing of their loan applications with liberalized terms of payment and interest rates.
Villafuerte said the use of organic materials especially in agriculture should be encouraged and promoted in order to contribute to the preservation of the ecological balance.
Citing the Environment and Natural Accounting Resources Project (ENRAP), he said as far as back as 1998, the agriculture industry pollutes Philippine waters by as much as 1, 892 kilograms of nitrogen per square kilometer per year, resulting in large algal blooms in vulnerable areas of the ocean.
“It is never too late to do the right thing. In the move towards a more sustainable and productive agriculture industry, the State has to prioritize measures that encourage its farmers and manufacturers to do what is right – use and support organic fertilizers,” Villafuerte said.