Tighten your belts, folks!

prevailing prices with your suggested retail prices (SRP). And, please, go market-hopping without a coterie of bodyguards so you’d get a real feel of what’s happening. Maybe you can do this with Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol, under whose watch the prices of vegetables and fruits belong.

In public markets, ask vendors why prices of commodities have - ous reasons, but the usual answer you may get is that they get their deliveries at higher prices.

In the wet markets, prices per bundle ( or pile ( may have remained the same but the quantity has been reduced by half.

In grocery stores and supermarkets, sales clerks often don’t have answers to questions about increased prices. Many are selling their old stocks at higher prices, but you can’t expect them to admit that. But there must

While doing the rounds, Mr. Secretary, you might also monitor compliance with the price tag law.

I doubt if you will hear that they raised prices because of the higher excise tax on fuel products. Well, I concede that you may be correct in saying that price increases on prime commodities would be minimal, if any, due to the higher excise tax on fuel. But prices have gone up even when lawmakers were still talking about the tax reforms, and the traders keep jacking up prices that the already burdened consumers have to bear.

Press statements and press releases won’t ease the burden of high prices for consumers. Make sure that your appeals to businesses to keep prices reasonable are heeded. Please tell them to moderate their greed!

Lopez said the DTI has estimated that the effect of the higher excise tax on petroleum products on the total production costs of manufacturers is only 0.4 percent, citing that manufacturers spend less than 5 percent of the cost to transport their products.

Under the new tax reform law, Republic Act 10963, diesel gets an excise tax of P2.50 per liter from zero, while the excise tax on gasoline rises to P7 - mentation. The excise tax on diesel will go up to P6 per liter by 2020, and on gasoline to P10.

Because of the minimal effect on production cost, Lopez said manufacturers may not even adjust their SRPs, so groceries are not supposed to raise their retail prices.

Lend credence to your statements, Mr. Secretary. Please do the rounds incognito, and deploy price monitors to make sure that groceries, supermarkets, and public markets follow. Assure us that