THE Local Price Coordinating Council in Bacolod City will convene shortly to tackle the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) Act which took effect this month.
Executive Assistant Ernie Pineda, head of Market Coordinating and Monitoring Task Force, said they are conducting daily price monitoring in the city’s three major public markets.
The Local Price Coordinating Council is chaired by Mayor Evelio Leonardia with the representative from the Department of Trade and Industry as vice chair. Members are from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture, Department of Health, and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
On Monday, the City Mayor’s Office-Price Monitoring Unit headed by Pineda, in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), led by trade and industry development specialist Reginald Hudierez, and market supervisor Jonah Abao, conduct an on-the-spot price monitoring at the Libertad Market.
On Friday, DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez warned retailers against using the tax reform law to gain unfair profit.
“To those who will take advantage and will increase prices beyond our projected amount, we will ask them to explain and as to the penalty, the amount is from P20,000 to P1 million per store,” Lopez said during a press conference in Malacañang.
He noted that while oil products and soft drinks are directly affected by a new excise tax, “the percentage increase is very small.”
Lopez added that the impact of Train on other products is very negligible, like in canned goods, which should increase by only five centavos.
“It’s hard to imagine because the impact is only five cents on canned goods,” the DTI chief said.