Price monitoring teams should be deployed amid TRAIN – Villar

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Cynthia Villar called on the Departments of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Agriculture to activate their respective price monitoring teams amid reports that some businesses raised the prices of their goods in response to the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.

Villar, chairperson of the Senate committee on agriculture, said the two national government agencies should guard against unreasonable price increases, all done in the name of TRAIN.

“Unfortunately, there are businessmen who would take advantage of the situation and use the enactment of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion to justify price increases. We don’t want these unreasonable increases to undermine the intended benefits of the law and we ask concerned government agencies to protect the consumers,” Villar said.

Villar cited reports of increases in the price of rice in some areas even though agricultural products were not covered by TRAIN.

Villar said the rice dealers cannot use the increase in excise tax on fuel to justify the hike in prices because transportation costs have minimal impact on the price of rice.

On the part of the DTI, Villar said it should monitor the compliance of the various commercial establishments with the price tag requirement and ensure there is no profiteering and violations of the Consumer Act and the Price Act.

“The support of local government units is also needed to ensure the stability of prices and to protect consumers from undue price increases,” Villar said.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, for his part, said effective mechanisms should be in place to monitor the fuel inventory of oil companies in order to ensure there are no unreasonable increases in pump prices.