NEGROS Occidental third district Representative Alfredo Benitez will soon invite all sugar industry stakeholders in a summit to come up a consensus of actions to be taken to strengthen the industry.
The summit is also in preparation for 2015 when imported sugar will already be tariff-free.
Benitez made the announcement last Friday during the awarding ceremonies and fellowship dinner of the "Victorias Milling Company-Cong. Alfredo 'Albee' Benitez Invitational Golf Tournament" at the L Fischer Hotel.
Through the summit, the lawmaker wants to thoroughly discuss the industry's needs and what he must do, as a lawmaker, to address those needs.
Enrique Rojas, president of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP), welcomed the announcement.
"Cong. Benitez should focus on legislation and other measures, which will completely eradicate sugar smuggling because smuggling is still the biggest problem of the sugar industry up to now," said Rojas.
The lawmaker should work on programs that will improve irrigation facilities; provide infrastructure support for the industry; and facilitate access to cheaper fertilizer and farm inputs, the NFSP president said.
"These measures will help reduce our production cost and will enable the country's sugar industry to become more competitive with other countries when we face the tariff-free scenario by 2015," he said.
Rojas added Benitez should also look into ways to help sugar producers avail the Value Added Tax (VAT) exemption, as embodied in the new Cooperative Law.
The new coop law provides VAT exemption for sugar producers but the guidelines promulgated by the Bureau of Internal Revenue make it very difficult for producers to avail of the exemption, said Rojas.
The sugar industry is among the top priorities in the legislative agenda of Benitez. In his inaugural address last June in Victorias City, he declared that he will convince sugar mills to go into cogeneration of electric power to mitigate the power shortage in the province.
Power cogeneration will benefit not only the mills but also the farmers because they will get a share of the electricity sales from the bagasse-based power produced by the mills.
The lawmaker also called a summit of all local government officials recently, which led to the signing of a memorandum of agreement that outlines a district-wide concerted approach in solid waste management. (Butch Bacaoco)