DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 06 July) – Bookstores, department stores and major malls are selling school supplies at suggested prices, a Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-Davao City official said in an interview with reporters Friday.
Rachel S. Remitio, DTI-Davao City director said they are strictly monitoring the prices of school supplies to ensure the compliance by establishment with the suggested prices in anticipation of the opening of classes on July 29.
She said the agency is conducting weekly monitoring and based on the recent report, the agency has noted no violations.
She added that if the agency finds stores selling school supplies above the suggested prices, it would immediately report the violators to the central office of DTI, which will reach out to the manufacturers and distributors to determine the cause of non-compliance.
“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.
She added that shoppers can expect more school supplies in the coming weeks.
Remitio said there are 117 stock keeping units of school supplies. Of this total, no price movement was observed among 80 of them, she 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.
According to DTI, notebook prices range from P11.80 to P52, pad paper for Grades 1-4 vary 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.
DTI said sharpeners and rulers are priced at P15 to P69 and P16 to P29, respectively. Erasers at small, medium, and large sizes range from P4.50 to P20. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
