Gov’t readies new discount guidelines for seniors, PWDs

Seniors and people with disabilities may soon see their weekly discount on basic goods. | INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The national government is crafting new guidelines to expand the monthly discount cap on grocery items and prime commodities for senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs).

Cherryl Carbonell, officer in charge of the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Consumer Policy and Advocacy Bureau, said on Saturday what they have now was an initial draft and they were working with other government agencies to complete the guidelines.

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“We have circulated this with our interagency members, such as the Department of Health, Department of Agriculture (DA), and the Department of Energy so they can comment on it,” Carbonell said during DTI’s Saturday morning public service program on dzBB radio station.

“After this, we will have a public consultation so we can get comments from stakeholders, the senior citizens and the PWDs, as well as from businesses,” she added.

Carbonell said they will publish the document once the guidelines were finalized.

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Discount

During a meeting with DTI officials that included Undersecretary Carolina Sanchez last week, Speaker Martin Romualdez said they were informed that senior citizens and PWDs will soon be able to enjoy a P500-per-month discount on groceries and other prime commodities before the end of March.

Nowadays, senior citizens and PWDs get a weekly grocery discount capped at P65, or a total of P260 per month.

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Seniors and PWDs are entitled to a special 5-percent discount on the regular retail price—without exemption from the value-added tax—of basic necessities under DTI-DA Administrative Order No. 10-02.

On Feb. 7, Romualdez said a technical working group was formed to study proposals to increase the discount hike, following concerns raised during one of the hearings by the House committee on ways and means.