DAVAO CITY – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-Davao City is strictly monitoring the prices of school supplies in major establishments as the opening of classes on July 29 approaches.

Rachel S. Remitio, DTI-Davao City director, said that the weekly monitoring intends to ensure that establishments comply with suggested retail prices.

She said that the agency has noted no violations among establishments. Remitio said they would immediately report violators to their central office in Makati City, which call out the manufacturers and distributors of school supplies.

“The DTI-Davao City is conducting weekly price monitoring of school supplies. We are happy to note that after three weeks of monitoring in major malls where our school supplies are sold, there have been no violations,” she said.

Remitio added that shoppers can expect more school supplies in the coming weeks.

She said there are 117 stock keeping units (SKUs) of school supplies. No price movement was observed among 80 SKUs, Remitio said.

"We can say that it is understandable why there were increases because of the increase in the prices of raw materials, especially that of paper,” she said.

 The DTI said notebook prices range from P11.80 to P52, pad paper for Grades 1 to 4 varies from P9.50 to P61, and intermediate paper costs P13.80 to P48.75.

Prices of pencils and ballpoint pens range from P11 to P33. 

For crayons, a box of eight colors costs P12 for regular to P65 for jumbo, a box of 12 colors costs P32, a box of 16 colors varies from P24 to P83, and a box of 24 costs P34 to P114.

Sharpeners and rulers are priced at P15 to P69 and P16 to P29, respectively. Small, medium, and large erasers range from P450 to P20.