DTI urges goods producers to cut prices

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is urging manufacturers to reduce prices of certain commodities to reflect the successive oil price rollbacks over the past few weeks.

Trade Undersecretary Victorio Mario Dimagiba said in a press conference Wednesday the DTI has decided to look into the impact of oil to certain commodities given the downtrend in diesel prices.

Based on estimates the cost of transporting accounts for three percent of total production cost, Dimagiba said prices of canned sardines should go down by nine centavos per can while that of corned beef should be reduced by 22 centavos.

For milk products, the DTI official said prices should be slashed by 32 cents per pack for powdered milk, 34 cents for condensed milk, and 25 cents for evaporated milk.

Instant noodles and coffee sachets, meanwhile, should have price reductions of seven centavos and 27 cents respectively.

The DTI has also looked into cement prices and estimates prices per sack should go down an average P2.

Dimagiba said diesel prices have already plunged 21 percent year to date based on Department of Energy data.

“So we are calling our businessmen to study on how to pass to the consumers the year to date decline in prices of diesel,” Dimagiba said.

Although the DTI cannot mandate the price reduction, Dimagiba said the agency is hoping for its enforcement.

“We are providing them with this data for them to consider but they are still the ones to set the Suggested Retail Price (SRP). It is now up to them when they will implement it,” Dimagiba said.

“If no action is done, we can go to the next stage as we normally do. Write them a letter and call their attention to review prices of their products,” he added.

The DTI last June requested assistance from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct a probe on flour and bread prices, saying local prices were not reflective of declining prices of wheat in the world market.

“It will depend on NBI on what their assessment will be but so far I like to report that almost 100 percent complied both for bakers and for millers. So I would like to thank all of the industry for hearing the DTI request to transfer to consumer a better price of wheat,” Dimagiba said.