DTI advises bottled water firms: Keep prices reasonable

As demand for bottled water goes up with the summer heat, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) advised bottled water retailers to observe the suggested retail price (SRP).

“We are always monitoring weekly prices of bottled water as one of the basic necessities. The last SRP issued was (on) April 26, 2017. As of last monitoring, prices are within SRP,” said Zaide Bation, business regulation head at DTI Cebu, in a text message.

DTI national officials led by Undersecretary Atty. Teodoro C. Pascua recently led monitoring and enforcement activities on the prices of various brands of bottled water sold in bus terminals in Metro Manila.

They observed that 10 stalls in Quezon City sold bottled water at prices far beyond the SRP.

Under Section 5 of Republic Act 7581 or the Price Act, selling a basic necessity like bottled water or a prime commodity at a “grossly excessive price” is considered profiteering.

“There shall also be prima facie evidence of profiteering when a basic necessity or prime commodity is sold without a price tag, misrepresented as to its weight and measurement, and raised by more than 10 percent of its price in the immediately preceding month,” said DTI.

OK, fine

When retailers are found to sell the item beyond SRP, Bation said DTI will require them to explain their prices. If grounds for overpricing are not established, DTI may fine the seller from P20,000 up to P1 million.

“As to the peddlers selling in the streets, there are handlers who supply them with bottled water, who in turn get them from distributors. Distributors get it from manufacturers with specific instructions for them to comply with the SRP,” said Bation.

DTI has urged retailers and other establishments not to take advantage of the consuming public’s thirst for drinking water amid the warm weather. Pollution from diesel trucks, buses and cars globally is more than 50 percent higher than levels shown in government lab tests, a new study says.

That extra pollution translated to another 38,000 deaths from soot and smog in 2015, the researchers estimated.

The work published Monday in the journal Nature was a follow-up to the testing that uncovered the Volkswagen diesel emissions cheating scandal. Researchers compared the amount of key pollutants coming out of diesel tailpipes on the road in 10 countries and the European Union to the results of government lab tests.

They calculated that five million more tons (4.6 metric tons) was being spewed than the labbased 9.4 million tons (8.5 million metric tons). Governments routinely test new vehicles to