Public consultation on online discounts for senior citizens, PWDs to begin next week — DSWD
The nationwide consultation zeroing on the availment of statutory discounts for the online transactions of senior citizens and persons with disability (PWD) will begin starting next week, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) announced on Friday, July 2.

The DSWD, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and its partner government agencies will conduct a three-day public consultation to ensure that all concerned stakeholders are on board in the process of coming up with a fair and square online discounts policy for senior citizens and PWDs.
“The consultation meeting will be conducted in three batches starting on July 5 for the Luzon cluster, July 7 for Visayas and Mindanao cluster, and July 9 for National groups,” the DSWD said in a statement.
Invited to attend the consultation meeting are representatives and heads of consumer protection groups, delivery app service networks, senior citizen organizations, persons with disability organizations, and business sector groups.
They are expected to tackle the provisions of the Joint Administrative Order (JAO), entitled “Guidelines on the Provision of the Statutory Benefits and Privileges of the Senior Citizens and Persons With Disabilities on their Purchases through Online (e-Commerce) and Phone Call/SMS.”
“Through the public consultation, the Department aims to enhance the guidelines of the JAO to ensure that persons with disability and senior citizens will be able to avail their statutory privileges in accessing products and services from establishments, business owners, and individual sellers, including those not registered with the DTI and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR),” the DSWD said.
Related story: https://mb.com.ph/2021/06/14/public-consultation-on-online-discounts-for-senior-citizens-pwds-set-in-july-dswd/
The DSWD had noted that the JAO seeks to “correct the misconception that the observance of the statutory privileges is limited to those which are only registered businesses.”
The DSWD and its partner agencies started crafting the guidelines in March this year. The JAO was the product of the “consultative effort of the DSWD, DTI, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), National Commission of Senior Citizens, National Council on Disability Affairs, Department of Health (DOH) , and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
On March 10, the DSWD bared that it is expected to meet and tackle with DTI the proposed guidelines on discounts for online purchases by senior citizens and PWDs.
Related story: https://mb.com.ph/2021/03/10/dswd-dti-to-discuss-friday-draft-guidelines-on-online-discounts-for-senior-citizens-pwds/