The Finance Ministry proposed Tuesday that the government expand the minimum access system under which the country imports about 770,000 tons of rice per year at zero tariffs.
The ministry made the proposal at a meeting of a subcommittee of the Fiscal System Council, which advises the finance minister, at a time when domestic rice prices are historically high.
Of the 770,000-ton quota, up to 100,000 tons are allotted for rice as a staple food. The remaining amount is sold at lower prices for processing and feeding, placing a heavy fiscal burden on the government.
Recently, private companies have sharply increased rice imports while paying high tariffs, against the backdrop of shortages of rice as a staple food. In view of the situation, the ministry proposed raising the tariff-free quota for such rice.
Meanwhile, the ministry said that the management of government-stockpiled rice should be shifted to a system that combines it with private rice stocks, in order to reduce related government spending.
“Even after the stockpiled rice was released, rice prices did not fall,” Hiroya Masuda, acting chairman of the subcommittee, said at a news conference after the day’s meeting.
“There were opinions calling for a review of the government’s (rice) import system, as well as flexible management (of the system),” Masuda said.
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