DTI 11 intensifies monitoring retail prices of school supplies

THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) 11 insists that school supplies must be sold no higher than the set suggested retail prices (SRPs).
With its mandate to continuously protect consumers from unscrupulous business practices, the department issued SRPs prior to the start of classes. This year’s school supplies SRPs are of the same level of the 2009 SRPs.
Trade secretary Jesli A. Lapus stressed that prices of school supplies should remain at 2009 levels because the increase in the world prices of pulp, the raw material for paper production, should be felt only in the second semester and not at the start of the school year
Meanwhile, DTI 11 regional director Marizon S. Loreto said, “Aside from checking on the quality of school supplies being sold, we are also monitoring prices of school supplies to ensure that there’s no profiteering involved,” she said. So far, prices of certain school supplies in the city are even lower than the set SRPs.
Mongol pencil, for instance, is sold at only P5.00 per piece, lower than its SRP of P5.50.
Loreto said that in buying school supplies, consumers must check on the labels. For notebooks and pad papers, they must look for the number of leaves, type, size, and grammage of paper, brand name or trade mark, name and address of manufacturer or importer, and country of origin. For crayons, one must check on the brand name or trade mark, number of crayons in each box (8, 16, 24, etc.), name and address of manufacturer or distributor, country of origin, and the words “non toxic” which shows that the product was tested and had passed the allowed toxicity level set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For pencils, the brand name or trademark, hardness symbol (1, 2, or 3), and country of origin must all be specified.
All provincial offices of DTI will be monitoring school supplies until classes start. Posters on the SRPs have also been placed at business establishments like bookstores, supermarkets, department stores, and wet markets to guide sellers and consumers.

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