• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Sugar Regulatory Administration yesterday clarified that imports under HS1702 does not include artificial sweeteners like sucralose and aspartame, and others are imported into the country with neither any import fees, nor are they required to secure any import clearance from SRA.
HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) is the only item on HS1702 that has been required an import clearance, and the fees for HFCS has been raised by the SRA and Department of Agriculture from P1.50/bag to P30/bag, according to a statement issued by SRA.
Other items on HS1702 like glucose, fructose, dextrose, and the like, were never required an import clearance and were never charged any import clearance fee, it added.
The previous administrations simply ignored and allowed these imports under HS1702, and those SRA administrations came from the Sugar Council’s group, the statement further said.
In a statement, SRA administrator Pablo Luis Azcona said that the artificial sweeteners mentioned by the Sugar Council are not under HS1702, but under a different tariff code, which is not covered by the Sugar Order in question.
Azcona added that the previous SRA administrations also ignored the importation of artificial sweeteners under a different tariff code, and never charged them a fee or required them a clearance.
Now that finally someone is doing something about other sugars to protect our farmers, they will make noise, he also said.
The Sugar Council and the NACUSIP (National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines), earlier aired apprehensions over the proposed lowering of import fees on sugar alternatives, which they say might trigger the influx of more sugar substitutes in the country and cause sugar millgate prices to drop further.
They claimed that SRA is planning to reduce the proposed P10 per 50-kilo bag raw sugar equivalent of alternative sweeteners under Tariff Line 1702, such as glucose, fructose, artificial honey, palm sugar, maltose, and others.
We clearly feel that these (Sugar Council) people need to be properly informed before going to the media. Let me repeat, there are currently no measures against any of these, and it’s the first time fees and clearances will be imposed, Azcona said.
Let me reiterate that we are not proposing a lower import clearance fee for sweeteners to displace locally produced sugar, as these groups say, rather we are now requiring fees and import clearance that the previous SRA ran by people from the Sugar Council never did, he stressed.*
