A P2 to P3 per kilo service fee would be slapped on the 150,000 metric ton sugar importation that the government is allowing the private sector to bring in duty-free.

This was bared by Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap after the meeting of the National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC) noting that measures have to be put in place to guard against price speculation.

“It should be money down for importers before the release of the commodity. We can even jack it up to P3,” Yap said.

“We are allowing this duty-free importation back to back with the private sector so the government will not pay for the importation,” he said. Under normal circumstances, imported sugar is slapped with 40 percent tariff.

Yap explained that the service fee is necessary to avoid speculation and also to protect the sugar farmers and the 450,000 sugar plantation workers.

“This is to ensure that the interest of the sugar farmers is not sacrificed in favor of the consumers,” he said.

Prices of sugar have gone up to over P50 per kilo, but Yap said they are adjusting the suggested retail prices of sugar to P45-P48 per kilo from the prevailing prices of P40 per kilo for brown and P50 for white sugar although in some isolated areas prices have gone up to P60 per kilo already.

To ensure that the imported duty-free sugar cannot be re-exported by unscrupulous traders given the more attractive world market prices, Yap said that the Sugar Regulatory Authority (SRA) would allocate the sugar based on their accredited sectors.

There should be allocation for the food processors, institutional users, and consumers, Yap said.

The imported duty-free sugar is also scheduled to start coming in mid-April this year to August or in time for the off-milling season.