WITH just a week before school starts, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) stepped up its monitoring of prices of school supplies in Cebu.
Ma. Elena Arbon, DTI Cebu provincial director, said they are already doing a special monitoring of stores selling school supplies.
“We noticed that there are a few items or stores that registered prices beyond the SRP (suggested retail price) but only very minimal amounts. We are asking the stores to abide with the SRP,” she told Cebu Daily News.
The DTI Central Office has already released a list containing the SRPs for school supplies in its “Gabay sa Pamimili ng School Supplies” which was released last May 15.
Gladys Oro of DTI Cebu’s Consumer Protection Division, said they have disseminated the list to retailers and stores that sell school supplies since last week.
Based on the list, the price of an 80-leaves composition and writing notebook should be within the range of P16 to P24. The price only varies depending on the brand and the quality of materials used.
The price for spiral notebooks should be between P12.20 to P34.75. Writing pads, 80-leaves, should be between P6 to P15.75 while intermediate pad paper should be sold at P12.20 to P32.75.
“We will continue monitoring stores for school supplies until the end of June. We usually do monitoring once a week,” said Oro
She said they have been in contact with major stores in Metro Cebu like National Bookstore Mango, People’s Educational Supply, Metro Colon, National Bookstore Parkmall, and Boss Parkmall to inform them of the SRPs.
They have also disseminated the SRP list to stores outside Metro Cebu including Grand Mall Cordova, Grand Mall Minglanilla, La Nueva Minglanilla, Expressions Tabunok, Fooda Talisay, Kentech Naga, and Metro Naga.
Oro said majority of the stores are compliant with the SRP.
It is understandable, she explained, that high-end stores would sell at the higher end of the price spectrum although still within the SRP.
But at the same time, Oro said there are also stores in areas like at the Carbon Public Market that are selling at an even lower price than the SRP, but the quality of materials is not as good.