The Federation of Free Farmers downplayed the Department of Finance’s statement on the beneficial effects of the Rice Tariffication Law on the financial performance of the National Food Authority.
The group cited a DOF statement saying the NFA was able to reduce its losses to P9.6 billion in 2021, or 38 percent lower than in 2020. The DOF attributed it to the reduction in the NFA’s trading losses and overhead costs as the agency limited its activities to buffer stocking as mandated under the RTL.
An analysis by the FFF of the NFA’s financial statements revealed that the agency’s losses actually increased in the first three years of RTL implementation.
“NFA lost a total of P41.87 billion from 2019 to 2021. This is larger than the P36.8 billion that the agency lost between 2016 to 2018, or before RTL was enacted,” said FFF national manager Raul Montemayor.
He said the government subsidies to the NFA also doubled to almost P64 billion between 2019 and 2021 compared to only P28.5 billion in the three years preceding RTL enactment.