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Thursday, November 17, 2005
Prices of basic goods stable despite R-VAT
THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) - Cebu did not see drastic changes in the prices of basic and prime commodities in Cebu City, amid speculations of a price hike after the Reformed Value-Added Tax (R-VAT) Law was implemented.
In the data furnished to Sun.Star Cebu yesterday, the prices of commodities, like canned fish, processed milk, coffee, laundry soap, detergent bar, salt and flour were stable based on the price behavior of basic and prime commodities monitoring they have conducted in Cebu City last Monday.
Compared to the prices last week, only Champion’s 480-gram detergent bar increased from P15.50 to P15.65.
DTI-Cebu monitors the prices of popular brands of canned fish, milk, coffee, laundry soaps, salt and detergent bars.
“We expect prices to be stable or at least compliant to suggested retail prices during the next couple of months. The R-VAT should not be a reason for traders to increase the prices of their goods,” DTI Cebu Provincial Office Trade and Industry Regulatory Division Chief Zaide Bation said in an interview yesterday.
Earlier, the DTI and the Cebu City Government warned those that would take advantage of the RVAT Law by unreasonably hiking up prices of goods with the consequence of losing their business permits.
Bation added that with Christmas season (when prices of goods are usually slashed down) up next month, consumers are even expected to benefit from discounted prices of goods by various stores.
“DTI Cebu already received many applications for promo permits from companies that would want to sell products at discounted prices,” she said.
Prices up
On the other hand, prices of construction materials went up.
Portland’s 40-kilogram cement increased from P160 last week to P161 last Monday while Pozzolan cement also increased from P158 to P159.
Corrugated galvanized iron sheets increased from P176 to P188 and from P160 to P172.
Only the prices of deformed steel bars, however, went down from P108 to P99.25 and from P156 to 143.
“While the decrease of steel price is expected because its raw materials cost had also went down (despite RVAT), other construction materials like galvanized iron sheets have gone up. The effect in the industry is that the demand for it went down also. We don’t have much construction going on,” Carlos Co, vice president for the Visayas of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said in a separate interview yesterday.
Co is also the chief executive officer of Cebu Oversea Hardware, Cebu Steel Corp., Oversea Feeds Corp. and Oversea Agri-aqua International Development Corp.
“However, while there’s lesser demand for basic construction materials (like cement), there is an ample demand for house finishing materials like paints and tiles for house repair and maintenance projects,” he said. (ALC)
(November 17, 2005 issue)
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