Cooking gas price slashed by P1 per kilo

MANILA, Philippines - Independent retailers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) are cutting the price of cooking gas by P1 per kilogram effective today.

Rep. Arnel Ty of the party-list group LPG Marketers Association (LPGMA) said yesterday the price cut is an offshoot of the drop in the international market price of LPG.

Ty said the suggested retail price of an 11-kilogram cylinder of LPG is P584 from P595, effective today.

He said big LPG producers like Petron and Shell are expected to also reduce their prices.

LPGMA groups independent cooking gas retailers in Metro Manila and neighboring areas. It also has members in the provinces.

Meanwhile, Ty said more than 500,000 depositors have been affected by the closure of 41 small banks in the past 18 months.

Ty had called on the House committee on banks and financial institutions, of which he is a member, to inquire into what caused the banks to close shop.

“We have to ascertain whether existing laws are adequate to discourage unsafe, unsound and fraudulent banking practices, protect depositors, promote savings, support responsible credit, and reinforce public confidence in the banking industry,” he said.

He said unsafe banking activities include excessive reliance on large, high-cost or volatile deposits or borrowing, including the offering of interest rates that are 50 percent higher than prevailing industry rates.

He added that undue dependence on solicitation and acceptance of brokered deposits and spending large sums on commissions and referral fees to generate deposits may also constitute unsound banking practices.

 Ty urged the Philippine Insurance Deposit Corp. (PDIC) to expedite the processing of claims of depositors of closed banks.

Recently closed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) were Export and Industry Bank, which had 50 branches; and the 20-branch LBC Development Bank and Banco Filipino Savings and Mortgage Bank, which operated 62 branches.

Ty also urged the PDIC and the BSP to take legal action against officers of collapsed banks found to have perpetrated fraud, resorted to self-dealing or committed other violations.

The 41 banks padlocked by the BSP in the last 18 months are on top of 32 mostly rural lenders closed in 2010.