Gov’t urged to postpone additional taxes to be levied on Turkish flour

Turkish flour (Photo: www.tfyi.gov.tr)

The price of bread and other flour-based products is expected to increase by up to 20 percent beginning July, as “antidumping duties” have been slapped on imported Turkish flour. In this regard, the Philippine-Turkish Business Council warned on Monday that the increase may result in the closure of around 100,000 small business establishments.

Chairperson of the Philippine-Turkish Business Council, Ernesto Chua, said in a briefing that the additional taxes applied on the flour – scheduled to take effect sometime within the next two weeks – would affect millions of direct and indirect laborers; in particular, those in the provinces where Turkish flour is widely used.

Just last month, the Department of Agriculture announced a provisional antidumping duty on Turkish flour imports. This is added onto the existing 7-percent duty. The new antidumping duties to be applied are 35-percent on hard flour and 35.21-percent on soft flour.

Chua disclosed that they are exerting effort to delay the implementation of the additional duties, so as not to burden the end-consumers.

Turkish flour is widely used, as it is cheaper than locally milled flour. Retail selling price of Hard flour from Turkey is P720 a 25-kilogram bag; P750-P820 a bag for flour from Vietnam and Indonesia, and P850 to P920 a bag for locally milled flour.