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Friday, November 04, 2005
City tightly watches prices of basic goods
By Nelson C. Bagaforo and Ben O. Tesiorna
CONCERNED government agencies in Davao City have tightly watched prices of basic necessities and prime commodities to ensure retailers and unscrupulous traders will not use the Reformed Value-added Tax (RVAT) Law as an excuse to cheat consumers.
From a weekly submission of report, the city's price monitoring council is now mandated to submit its price monitoring report on a daily basis following speculations the RVAT Law implementation will cause prices to skyrocket and be burdensome to consumers.
Teololu Pasawa, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) city director, said Mayor Rodrigo Duterte ordered the council to submit a daily report to City Administrator Wendel Avisado starting November 2, a day after RVAT took effect.
He said they are regularly monitoring goods against price spikes to safeguard consumers against profiteers.
He warned that retailers who drastically increase prices must justify their adjustments or be slapped with administrative fines or imprisonment.
But based on their monitoring, Pasawa reported that since the implementation of RVAT on Tuesday, they have not monitored any marked increase in the prices of commodities in the city markets, nor have they recorded any violations in the Price Act.
Reports have it that prices of processed goods such as canned sardines, milk, and instant noodles did not change, as well as that of chicken, pork and fish.
But Pasawa was quick to admit they are facing difficulty in determining whether one trader has committed profiteering.
"Kaya may proposal na ngayon to amend the Price Act para madali malaman if nag-profiteering ang isang negosyante o hindi," Pasawa said.
Pasawa said the price monitoring council was earlier re-organized with the city mayor as head and the regional director of DTI as vice-chair.
Named members of the council are representatives from the Department of Agriculture, Department of Health, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Transportation and Communication, Department of Justice and the National Economic Development Authority.
Also comprising the council are sectoral representatives from the consumers group, agri-producers, traders, manufacturers and retailers group.
The council will continue to inspect not just the wet markets, but also supermarkets and hardware stores to make sure that prices are in order, price tags are in place, and no substandard products are being sold.
RVAT is considered the centerpiece of the Arroyo administration's tax package and is expected to generate P80 billion to P120 billion in new revenues being targeted by the government starting next year.
The tax law also authorizes President Arroyo to raise the VAT rate from 10 percent to 12 percent starting Jan. 1, 2006 in order to increase revenue collections by P35.12 billion, or a total of P81.41 billion for the entire year.
The law puts a stop to the privilege of consumers of not paying the 10 percent VAT on some goods and services.
These goods and services include coal, natural gas and other indigenous fuels, petroleum products, raw materials, power, electric cooperatives, domestic transport of passengers by air and sea, medical and legal services.
This means the prices of these products and services will go up due to the additional tax.
Consumers have already expressed frustration on government because of the law, saying this will aggravate the financial crisis the people are now experiencing due to the increase of the price of oil in the global market and the political squabble among government leaders.
But business leaders expressed support to RVAT, saying this is the only way the country's economy can recover and for the country to regain investors' confidence.
Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal earlier said he is worried about the impact of RVAT on the poor.
He warned that poverty will worsen as many people can no longer cope with the increases in the price of goods and non-food items.
"Basic goods will become expensive and I pity those who do not have money," he said.
The cardinal also said job opportunities will lessen as many companies may resort to retrenching their workers if the firms can no longer afford to sustain their operations.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (November 4, 2005 issue)
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