House Speaker pushes for regulation of shipping costs

Cayetano said high shipping fees force importers to pass on these costs to consumers, which leads to increases in the costs of imported raw materials and other goods. (File Photo: Alan Peter Cayetano/Facebook)

MANILA – Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano on Thursday said the House of Representatives would push for the swift passage of a measure seeking to regulate high shipping rates to help bring down prices of consumer goods. 

Cayetano said high shipping fees force importers to pass on these costs to consumers, which leads to increases in the costs of imported raw materials and other goods.  

“Local producers who import raw materials are forced to pay these exorbitant shipping fees, which jack up their production costs, and, in the process, result in higher prices for domestic consumers,” said Cayetano. 

“Ang prinoprotektaha natin dito in the end ay ang ating mga consumers (In the end, we are protecting our consumers). This will also help the government improve its tax collection capabilities,” he added. 

The Speaker said the chamber will coordinate with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to consolidate a draft bill from the agency with other measures already filed at the House on the regulation of shipping fees.  

The DTI plans to submit its draft bill before the end of January. 

Meanwhile, House Bills 4316 and 4462 seek to regulate and standardize local fees imposed by foreign shipping lines operating in the country.  

The DTI had earlier planned to ask President Duterte to issue an executive order (EO) that will significantly reduce logistics costs for local companies.  

The proposed EO is expected to bring down the average cost of logistics as a percentage of sales of local firms from about 27 percent to below 20 percent.  

According to the World Bank, the average logistics costs of firms consist of only 11.11 percent of the total sales in Thailand, Vietnam at 16.3 percent, and Indonesia at 21.40 percent.