MANILA – The government is considering expanding the scope of suggested retail prices to include chicken, vegetables, rice and fish to guard against unwarranted price increases, an official said Thursday.
A technical working group is looking into the production cost of goods to establish the baseline for prices, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said.
The Department of Trade and Industry currently imposes SRPs on sardines, bread, milk, instant noodles, bottled water, corned beef, meat loaf, luncheon meat, soy sauce, fish sauce, candles and bath soap.
“Tinanong namin sila kung magkano ba ang inyong production cost because based on the production cost magkakaroon ng estimate kung magkano dapat ibenta sa merkado,” Piñol told.
Regular rice should not be sold by more than P40 per kilo, while well-milled rice should cost from P41 to P42 per kilo, he said.
Rice imports by the National Food Authority started arriving this week and will be available in the market as early as Sunday, he said. (ABS-CBN News)
