Prices in Central Visayas stable
by Minerva BC Newman
Cebu City (1 July 2005) -- The National Food Authority has kept the price of rice within the reach of ordinary consumers despite the rising cost of other socially sensitive products, like oil and electricity. Rice and other agricultural products are exempted from E-VAT.
According to the Regional Information Officer of NFA-7, Ernesto Lariosa, the price of rice is not expected to increase in the next six month because Central Visayas enjoys a very comfortable level of rice supply.
He said the price of NFA rice remains at a special price of P16/kilo and these are sold at the "Bigasan ni Gloria sa Palengke," a mitigating program of the Arroyo administration to cushion the impact of price increases of other commodities.
Lariosa added that from January-June 2005, 2-million bags of rice had arrived in Cebu from Vietnam for distribution to regions 7 and 8. As of today, NFA region 7 has an inventory of 1.7 million bags of rice that can supply the entire Visayas for the next six to ten months, Lariosa bared.
In the same development, the Dept. of Trade and Industry in region 7 has dispatched price monitoring teams in the various markets and malls in Cebu City to closely monitor the prices of basic/prime goods and commodities such as coffee, steel bars, detergent, sardines and other canned goods and milk.
Zayde Bation, Chief Trade & Industry Regulatory Division of the Dept. of Trade & Industry region 7 said the prices of Cebu City are considered as the prevailing prices in Central Visayas.
According to Bation, price-monitoring statistics showed that the price of laundry soap bars from January to June 2005 remained at P24.25/bar while detergent soap (480 g) also remained at P14.65. Sardines and tomato sauce (155 g) has a slight increase of 15 centavos from P9.60/can in January to P9.75/can in June. Coffee (25g) also remained at P15/bag as well as evaporated filled milk (370 ml) at P26.10/can from January to June 2005.
Bation also revealed the price of steel bars had gone down from P143.80/12mm bar in January, increased to P152.50 in March and April but continued to decrease at P138.50 in June 2005. She commented that this could be due to the low demand of steel bars in the global market today. However, other construction materials had gone by 3-5 percent compared to the last week's monitoring.
With the implementation of the E-VAT on July 1, prices of some basic and prime commodities are expected to increase, but rice and other agricultural products will remain stable. (PIA-Cebu)
Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=89217.0