Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual gave an assurance that prices on basic necessities and prime commodities (BNPCs) will not be increased during this Christmas season, but by early next year yet.

Pascual made this assurance on Thursday, Dec. 1, after meeting the National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC). The DTI is chairman of the NPCC.

According to Pascual, they are still asking the BNPC manufacturers to provide more detailed information to help DTI assess appropriately if there is a need for price increase or not on BNPCs. Pascual emphasized the need to check on the various inputs of production to come up with the right price.

“Our thinking is even if we process the data, it will take us beyond the holiday season so most likely we come up by early January,” said Pascual referring to the issuance of a new Suggested Retail Price (SRP) bulletin.

As much as possible, Pascual said the DTI will try to keep the price of the low end or the mass market products stable. He said manufacturers can implement cross subsidy to ensure the mass market products remain affordable.

Pascual earlier said the agency expects that 25 percent of requests by 15 different BNPC manufacturers for price adjustments may be granted at different price ranges.

There are 218 stock keeping units (SKUs) or variants of the 20 BNPCs being monitored and regulated by the DTI.

Of the 55 SKUs, Pascual said that prices on 10 SKUs may be adjusted by one to five percent, 14 SKUs by six to ten percent, and 31 SKUs by more than 10 percent, but which are mostly candle products.

The petitions for increases are largely due to the high cost of imported and local materials, packaging materials, and overhead charges. Basic goods include canned sardines, processed milk, coffee, bread, instant noodles, salt, detergent soap, bottled water, and candles, while prime commodities include meat loaf, beef loaf, corned beef, soy sauce, vinegar, fish sauce, toilet soap, and battery.

The current SRP on BNPCs was issued by the DTI on August 12 this year, which reflected price increases on 67 SKUs.

On Wednesday, Nov. 23, the DTI published the Noche Buena Price Guide as consumers start to buy food items normally consumed during the Christmas holidays.

Noche Buena products, however, are not considered basic goods and therefore not regulated by the DTI. Based on the Price Guide, a total of 195 SKUs out of 223 Noche Buena products have raised prices with almost half increased their prices by more than 10 percent and the rest with minimal hikes of one to 10 percent on higher cost of imported and local materials, packaging and overhead costs. The Noche Buena Price Guide listed a total of 12 products comprising a total of 223 SKUS. These are ham, fruit cocktail, cheese, keso de bola, mayonnaise, sandwich spread, pasta, elbow macaroni, salad macaroni, spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce, and cream or all-purpose cream.