Manufacturers insist on no price rollback
PH pays record low yield of 3.7% on latest offshore dollar borrowing
Manufacturers insist they cannot rollback prices of basic goods because logistics costs still remain high, but the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) thinks otherwise.
“They still insist they cannot rollback suggested retail prices, but based on our computation there must be rollback in suggested retail prices,” said DTI Undersecretary Victorio Mario Dimagiba.
Based on their dialogues, Dimagiba said the manufacturers continue to insist against any rollback because the cost of distribution still remains high.
Dimagiba said he will report to the National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC), which will be meeting first week of March.
According to Dimagiba, only manufacturers can rollback prices but he also noted that NPCC at one time had ordered the reduction in prices of sugar.
Dimagiba, however, reported that Prices of non- agricultural basic necessities and prime commodities since the start of the year have remained stable.
DTI’s Fair Trade Enforcement Bureau (FTEB) has monitored a total of 218 supermarkets and groceries in the National Capital Region (NCR) and all of which were found to be selling within the SRPs set by the manufacturers of basic and prime goods.
The FTEB report said cement and flour remained at their prevailing prices while some brands of basic and prime goods have increased in price by 0.10 to 3.00 but still remained within the SRP level. These are Alpine Evaporated Milk, Nescafe Classic Coffee Refill 50g, Surf Bar Calamansi, Surf Bar Blue, Safeguard White, Absolute Distilled Bottled Water, and Summit and Viva Mineralized Bottled Water.
Meanwhile, other brands have registered a decrease in price by 0.05 to 1.60 such as Alaska Powdered Milk Drink, Nescafe Classic Coffee Refill 25g, Speed Bar Detergent Soap, Argentina Corned Beef, Silver
Swan Vinegar, Silver Swan Soy Sauce, and Natures Spring Purified Bottled Water.
Even for products with no SRPs, the DTI has monitored that these goods remained at their prevailing prices. Although, some brands increased by 0.10 to 4.50 but majority lowered in price by 0.10 to 2.05.
“Our monitoring data reflects that competition is at play in the market given the increases and decreases in the prices of some brands of manufactured basic and prime goods. Nevertheless, we assure the consuming public that these movements are still within the SRP level. Likewise, the retailers’ full compliance with the SRPs is an even greater assurance for our consumers that the products being offered in the market are sold at reasonable prices,” said DTI- Consumer Protection Group (CPG) Undersecretary Atty. Victorio Mario A. Dimagiba.
Further to the price monitoring efforts of the DTI, the DTI-CPG’s Consumer Protection and Advocacy Bureau ( CPAB) is concurrently conducting dialogues with various manufacturers of basic and prime goods to discuss their prices and to make a review for possible adjustments relative to the substantial drop in oil prices.
It can be recalled that these dialogues resulted from the proceedings of the National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC) Meeting that was convened last January 22,, 2016.
Based on the data gathered by the CPAB from the World Bank and United States Department of Agriculture, prices of raw materials such as skimmed milk, whole milk, butter milk, tin, meat and chicken, wheat, and coffee robusta have significantly gone down in 2015 with an average of 4.78% to 29.56%.
In the dialogues, the manufacturers did not deny that prices of raw materials, fuel and electricity are declining. However, they explained that such decline can be offset by high cost of trucking, shipping, foreign exchange rate, and drought in Australia and New Zealand that affects that prices and supply of meat materials.
The manufacturers insisted that trucking and shipping costs remain high while the depreciation of the Philippine Peso affected the prices of some imported materials such as tomato paste, starch, spices, and other ingredients.
For meat materials, Australia and New Zealand have been the best sources for the said product given the savings they incur from the zero tariffs in these countries.
However, drought pushed the prices of meat materials to increase forcing manufacturers to import from Brazil and Ireland that impose 10% tax duty.
With all these issues on hand, the manufacturers clamored for further study and dialogue with the DTI, and requested for the agency to look into other elements that affect their pricing besides oil fuel.