The National Food Authority said in a press statement yesterday that its officials welcome any investigation by the Senate on the agency's operational losses for the past three years.

NFA Administrator Gregorio Tan Jr. said that they are open to any inquiry on its financial condition, saying that the losses totaling P32.8 billion have been incurred in the implementation of its mandate of ensuring food security and stabilization in the prices and supply of rice.

He reiterated that the losses have actually translated into gains for rice farmers and consumers, adding that farmers benefit from the NFA's grains procurement operations while consumers are provided access to cheap but quality NFA rice.

Tan said that the agency is expected to incur losses because of the nature of its social mandates in which it subsidizes the price of palay it buys from farmers and the rice it sells to consumers.

For the past 10 years, he said, the NFA's subsidy allocation had been slashed steadily. Since 2002, the agency was even required to pay a 50 percent tariff on its rice importation, causing it

to further bleed financially.

About 86 percent of NFA's losses in the past three years went to tariff duties (68 percent) and interest cost (16 percent) of borrowings from financial institutions to pay for the tariff, Tan said in the press statement.*

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