THE Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and Department of Energy signed on Thursday, March 21, 2024, a joint administrative order (JAO) increasing the special discount to senior citizens and persons with disability (PWDs) for their purchase of basic and prime commodities.
From the current P65 per week, special discounts for senior citizens and PWDs was increased to P125 per week or P500 per month in line with the initiative of House Speaker Martin Romualdez, who earlier noted that the P260 monthly special discounts on groceries and other basic needs is no longer responsive given the increasing cost of living.
Covered for special discounts were rice, fish, pork, poultry meat and eggs, coffee, milk, condiments, other dairy products and cooking gas, and prime commodities like veterinary goods, certain construction materials and farm inputs like fertilizers, and herbicides, pesticides, poultry, fishery and livestock feeds.
Under the JAO, the total value of goods senior citizens and PWDs could purchase at a discounted price was also substantially raised to P2,500 a week from P1,300 or P10,000 a month from P5,200.
“Providing senior citizens and the differently-abled with additional discounts on agricultural products forms part of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s vision of providing Filipinos with affordable food and better nutrition,” said Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr.
“This special discount will be magnified once our strategy to produce more food by modernizing agriculture bear fruit,” he added.
The special discount is on top of the 20 percent statutory discount granted under Republic Act 9994, or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, and Republic Act 10754, or An Act Expanding the Benefits and Privileges of PWDs.
It was noted, however, that special discounts are not applicable to registered Barangay Micro Business Establishments and cooperatives.
The JAO, which is expected to take effect next month, allows businesses who would grant the special discount to deduct these on their income tax payment. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)