The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is looking at the request of some brands of milk, canned meat, laundry soap and condiments for price adjustments due high raw material costs, according to Ruth Castelo, DTI undersecretary.
Castelo said the range of increase requested is 2 to 11 percent or about 50 centavos to P2.
“We have requests for a few SKUs (stock keeping units) of manufactured basic and prime commodities already but (the DTI is) still completing the review,” Castelo said.
But she said the DTI is looking at adjusting prices late January to early February or for as long as it can stretch the September suggested retail prices (SRP) bulletin to help the consumers.
“Some are justified, some are not,” Castelo said in a text message on her initial assessment of the requests.
Castelo said among the canned meat up for adjustments include corned beef, meat loaf and beef loaf.
Meanwhile, DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said in an interview on Saturday the list of products covered by SRP has been whittled down from 250 down to 140.
The list now excludes products that were subject to SRP in 2018 to closely monitor the movement of products brought about by rising inflation.
Lopez cited the exclusion now of certain premium brands of sardines from the SRP now that inflation as stabilized
