DTI to go after sugar retailers selling above P52 per kilo

Retailers selling sugar above the P52 suggested retail prices (SRP) will be charged as profiteers unless they can justify their acquisition cost warrants a higher selling price of the commodity. “If they sell above P52 and they have no receipts to show, we would file profiteering charges against them immediately. But if they show us receipts, then we will go to their suppliers up to the producers. We will use the receipts as basis in determining who is overcharging," Trade Undersecretary for Consumer Welfare Zenaida Maglaya said after the public-private National Price Coordinating Council meeting Thursday. The government, according to Maglaya, decided to keep P52 as the retail price of sugar. There is no need to increase the SRP since the supply situation at the retail level will stabilize with the arrival of 67,000 metric tons of imported sugar that was a part of the 100,000-MT government approved for duty-free importation under the Tax Expenditure Scheme, Maglaya said. The departments of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Agriculture decided that P52 per kilo should be kept after hearing the reports and comments of the Sugar Regulatory Administration, retailers, and other stakeholders. Agriculture assistant secretary Salvador Salacup said 23,000 MT will be arriving in two weeks. He warned that the 100,000 MT of imported sugar was intended for the retail market and importers selling to industrial buyers will lose their license. A sugar miller in the Visayas is ready to start milling next week with others scheduled to start next month. “We will also be fielding the locally milled sugar in the market soon so we expect supply to normalize already," he said. The country experienced a temporary shortage of the commodity as the El Niño-induced dry spell disrupted harvest schedules and the supply chain. Demand from juice manufacturers and higher prices of sugar in the international market aggravated the situation. Price monitoring teams started visiting retailers Thursday, Maglaya said. “The first line that we will check is the retailers. If we see that they got their supply at higher prices, then we will go up to the traders and then their sources," she said. —VS, GMANews.TV