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Monday, July 17, 2006
Association urged to join price monitoring
By Christine Mae Pelayo
IN RESPONSE to the call of the Negros Occidental Internet Cafe Association (NOICA) to regulate the rates for Internet cafes, the City Government is encouraging the group members to join the monitoring team that may put a halt to the raging internet price war.
Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia said NOICA can help the city's monitoring team thresh out the details of their concern.
The members of the monitoring team to be convened include representatives from the City Treasurer's Office, Licensing Division, Bacolod City Police Office, City Legal Office, and NOICA.
The mayor will soon call for a conference to convene the members.
NOICA president Mark Delfin earlier said that the price war among internet cafe owners in the city has alarmed its members.
Delfin disclosed that some illegitimate internet shops have lower internet surfing, rental and gaming costs compared to the internet cafes owned by legitimate NOICA members.
He cited the referendum organized by NOICA where 84 of its members agreed for a minimum floor rate of P20 per hour for all internet cafes.
However, there are internet shops that have lowered its rates to only P10 per hour or even P8 per hour.
NOICA, in its statement sent last week, claimed that "low prices is not only destructive to the internet industry but to the local government as well, where these cafes (with low prices) refuse to apply for necessary permits nor pay appropriate taxes because such pricing dissolved their capacity to comply with basic government requirements in running a business."
NOICA added that "it has even resulted in some anomalous practices such as catering to pornographic entertainment and gambling just to augment their meager income."
(July 17, 2006 issue)
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