The Department of Trade and Industry has approved an increase in the Suggested Retail Price this month of four kinds of sardines, powdered milk, and toilet soap, even as it revealed it may abolish the SRP scheme to allow other forms of price monitoring as a fair-trade policy, amid rising prices of raw materials.
Consumer Protection Group chief and Assistant Secretary Amanda Nograles said the DTI has approved an updated SRP Bulletin on Jan. 17, raising the SRP on nine stock-keeping units— four SKUs of canned sardines and one each on powdered milk and toilet soap.
Following meetings with manufacturers, price adjustments for canned sardines range from P2 to P3.59, for powdered milk is between P3.50 to P6, and for toilet soap, P1.50 to P4 per piece.
Over 40 more SKUs are also asking for price adjustments by March, Nograles added.
She said the DTI has yet to publish the second tranche of SRP adjustments on the DTI website as it would take time for manufacturers to adjust to new pricing.
For pending commodities, the DTI said manufacturers were seeking price adjustments of P2 to P2.50 for budget breads. However, the lack of pertinent documents deters the assessment of the bakers’ petitions for a price hike.
Batteries, on the other hand, may increase by less than P10 per SKU.
“The biggest price increase will be around P30, while the lowest willbe P0.30 which is on noodles. Condiments may increase by P0.55 to P0.60 per SKU,” Nograles said.
As for abolishing the suggested retail price announcements, Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said there was no need for SRP during regular times, citing studies by the Department of Justice in 2015 and the World Bank in 2019.
“We are looking into these studies to see how we can approach the matter of SRP. Thus, we are of the impression that SRP can be enforced not as a bulletin that comes out every so often, but as a price guide during calamities or disasters when the government can step in and impose price ceilings on BNPCs (basic necessities and prime commodities),” Pascual said in a briefing after a meeting with the National Price Coordinating Council on Wednesday.
He added that the Price Act did not specifically recommend the creation of SRP or BNPCs but the government may set the SRP on necessities.
Consumers may turn to the E-Presyo, a daily online bulletin of BNPCs published at the DTI website for the latest price updates on the lowest pricing range of BNPCs, Pascual said.
The DTI noted that subjecting BNPCs to SRPs may discourage investors from investing in the Philippines due to strict protocol on the production and selling of goods.
However, the DTI will continue to implement the SRP Bulletin, unless a better option crops up.
“In reality, the SRP is really a government-imposed SRP. The SRP of a particular item comes from the manufacturers. We simply concur to it following negotiations,” Pascual said.
The DTI is poised to release another SRP Bulletin in March for a new set of price hike approvals on consumer goods that were still pending with the DTI.
It will be the third update on SRP on BNPCs following the Jan. 12 and 17 approvals.