By IRIS C. GONZALES

MANILA, - The National Government wants to tighten the budget given to the National Food Authority (NFA) including subsidies as part of efforts to address the money-losing operations of the state-owned grains agency, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said yesterday.

Purisima said that while abolishing the NFA or drastically changing its mandate would need legislation by Congress, the Finance department could already implement some changes as early last now.

When asked if the government would directly slash the subsidies that the NFA gets regularly, Purisima said everything is under review and that “there is a transition period for the next six months.”

What’s clear, he said, is that NFA’s debts have ballooned beyond control and that there should be a long-term solution to the money-losing operations of NFA by revisiting its policies.

Citing data from the Finance department, Purisima said the liabilities of NFA rose to P171 billion as of end-May 2010 from only P28 billion in 2003.

“There’s really no reason why we should allow this to happen,” he told reporters yesterday on the sidelines of the Joint General Membership Meeting of the Financial Executives Institute of the , Makati Business Club and the Management Association of the .

Subsidies given to NFA amounted to P2.85 billion as of end-June from only P2.025 billion as of end-May. The government grants subsidies to NFA to allow the grains agency to fulfill its mandate of selling price at affordable rates even if these were bought at a high price.

Purisima said the Finance department, under his leadership, is now looking for ways to overhaul NFA by revisiting its mandate.

He said he has already asked the Commission on Audit to audit the books of NFA and other government-owned and controlled-corporations as of end-June.

This, he noted, is to establish and distinguish between the operations of the state-owned agencies under previous administration and the Aquino government.