The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is looking for alternatives to the rice price ceiling two weeks into its implementation.
NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, an expert at agricultural economics, said he will recommend other options as he acknowledged that limiting retail prices at P41/kilogram of regular-milled rice and P45 a kilo for well-milled rice cannot be in place for too long, or else stores will stop selling rice to avoid more losses.
“We will meet soon to recommend other options. There are options, for example, we have made mentioned about reducing the tariff while world prices are rising,” he said in a Malacañang press briefing.
“That is the objective: nobody should be worse off. The only worst off here would be the government because there will be less revenue from the tariffs,” Balisacan added.
The NEDA chief, however, didn’t say when the price ceiling on rice would be lifted.