The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is proposing the implementation of a special Suggested Retail Price (SRP) to control the prices of certain goods during high-demand seasons like Christmas, back-to-school months, and Valentine's Day.
During a recent virtual hearing of the House Committee on Trade and Industry, Valenzuela 2nd district Rep. Weslie Gatchalian said Trade Undersecretary Ruth Castelo presented DTI's proposed amendments to Republic Act (RA) no.7581, the Price Act of 1992, in order to make the law more attuned to the times.
"A special suggested retail price (SRP) may be issued by the concerned implementing agencies on consumer products that are of high demand during emergency cases and seasonal events and holidays, such as but not limited, to back-to-school, Christmas, New Year, Valentine's Day, and All Saint's Day," she said of one suggested tweak to the 28-year-old law.
"So even before pala, wala kayong ano…more of monitoring lang? (So even before, you didn't have any…what you do is more of plain monitoring?)," Gatchalian asked.
"Wala kayong pinahihinto doon sa sementeryo, ganun? Or for example sa Valentine's Day, sa Dangwa (Manila), yung mga flowers ay tumataas ang presyo? (You don't accost peddlers of flowers at cemeteries? Or for example on Valentine's Day, what about the skyrocketing prices of flowers in Dangwa, Manila?)" he asked.
"That's why we propose a special SRP on these events, (for these seasons of buying)," the DTI official answered.
When Gatchalian asked if there are more events that must be monitored for exorbitant prices of goods, Castelo said, "Baka mayroon pa sir (Maybe there are more sir), we'll think of other occasions."
"Our proposed amendments come from the view of consumer protection. This is all for the consumers. If there are some business considerations Mr. Chair, we leave it to the wisdom of the honorable chair," she clarified.
Atty. Paul Santos of the Philippine Retailers Association (PRA) expressed reservations over the proposed special SRP for seasons of high-volume consumer buying.
"I emphasize it's the retailer on whom this SRP is laid on unfairly, in my opinion. It's a method of control to shape the public"s expectation on how prices should be, not taking into account the business situation that may require certain retailers to recover their costs on the goods that they sell," said Santos, who took part in the hearing as a resource person.
He said that from its original concept of being a pricing guide, the SRP has now evolved to mean "don't go beyond a certain threshold in pricing."
"If congress would like to define what SRP is, I think that would be a better idea. What's ambiguous to most is what SRP is supposed to be, is it the price which retailers must obey regardless of how they acquired the goods? Because of the social pressure of SRP, (retailers) are forced to price their goods at that level or face (investigation) by DTI," Santos said.
Castelo told the panel that it is the product manufacturers themselves that set the SRP for retailers, and not the DTI. "We do not invent them. We do not take them from thin air," she said.