DA acts vs ‘abnormal’ pricing of 8 key food items

Starting next week, the Department of Agriculture (DA) will impose a suggested retail price (SRP) on basic agricultural goods “to avoid an abnormal movement of prices in the market,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said.

A department order setting the SRP on eight basic food items was expected to be signed on Monday to coincide with the agency’s 118th foundation day, the DA official said.

The order will cover Metro Manila initially, but will be rolled out in other regions in the coming days.

A spike in the prices of basic commodities had been observed following the implementation in January this year of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act, which slapped new excise taxes on oil, cigarettes, sugary drinks and vehicles, among other goods, to compensate for the higher tax-exempt cap to an annual personal income of P250,000.

But Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua in an earlier statement attributed the price increase “to the apparent profiteering by some traders” who might be selling old inventories at higher prices to take advantage of the TRAIN Act.

Covered products

Prices were expected “to normalize” once the markets adjust and “the government intensifies its monitoring campaign to check unwarranted price movements of basic goods,” Chua said.

Among the products covered by the SRP order are regular-milled rice at P39 a kilo, milkfish at 150 a kilo, black carp (tilapia) at P100 a kilo, round scad (“galunggong”) at P140 a kilo, red onion at P95 a kilo, white onion at P75 a kilo, imported garlic at P70 a kilo and local garlic at P120 a kilo.

“The [prices] were suggested by stakeholders and were compared with prices in previous months,” Piñol said. Members of the DA’s technical working group noticed a consistency in the pricing and decided that this should be the SRP, he added.

Some commodities may be more accessible and plentiful in rural areas so regional markets would have different price points, Piñol said, adding that the SRP would be reviewed every 15 days.

The SRPs for poultry and livestock products were yet to be determined, the DA official said, as agency representatives have yet to meet industry stakeholders to determine whether they were keen on the idea of imposing price points.

Jail term, fines

The prices would be implemented across all markets, both large-scale and small-scale, Piñol said.

Traders and retailers who go beyond the 10-percent margin allowed on the SRP may face a jail term of five to 15 years, and fines from P5,000 to P1 million, Piñol said, quoting the Price Act of 1992.

Among the acts of profiteering included in this law was “raising the price of basic necessities or prime commodities … by more than 10 percent of its price in the immediately preceding month,” although the prima facie evidence provision does not apply “in the case of agricultural crops, fresh fish, fresh marine products and other seasonal products.”