PRICES of some commodities especially in frequently-visited supermarkets in Davao City is within the suggested retail price (SRP) as observed by Trade and Industry secretary Ramon Lopez during his price monitoring last Friday, January 12.
For the entire day of January 12, Lopez, together with the other the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) officials, was able to check the prices of supermarket commodities in Gaisano Mall of Davao and Victoria Plaza supermarkets. Lopez said he was a bit shocked to observe that some of the basic commodity prices in these supermarkets go below the SRP. He pointed as an example canned goods which have a DTI SRP of about P14.50 but is sold at the supermarkets at only P13.50 or P14.00.
“[This is a] good development and also just to assure the consumers thinking that the prices of the commodities will increase, it’s not true. As we have observed here, the prices in Davao City [supermarkets] are okay. Our SRP list is still as of last year and yet the prices do not exceed beyond it so it’s really a good indication that there is no movement of the SRPs for the basic necessities,” said Lopez.
He said those who are not covered by the SRP monitoring are the convenience stores and the sari-sari stores.
He clarified that DTI regularly checks the commodity prices in all supermarkets nationwide even before the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) Law.
He also said that the commodities whose prices did not increase nor has any movement are those that are considered basic. However for those products that are affected by the Train Law excise tax such as softdrinks and other sweetened beverages, an increase in prices should be expected with the arrival of the new stocks.
“Here in Victoria, the prices [of the softdrinks] have already increased because they said this is already part of the new delivery. However in Gaisano Mall, the prices are still the same – they are still at P47 for 1.5 liters which means that these are not the new stocks. We’re not saying that these are old stocks but it only means that it is delivered before December 31, before the New Year. We expect that the inventory of these products be consumed by January 15, so majority of the softdrinks may have increased prices already by next week,” said Lopez.