Watchdogs mobilized against profiteering

MASBATE CITY, Feb. 3 (PIA)-- Business regulators here have been mobilized to ensure that no entity in Masbate province’s trading hub will abuse the current escalation in commodity prices and engage in profiteering. 

Mayor Socrates M. Tuason said that the local price coordinating council (LPCC) will conduct regular inspection of public markets.  This will prevent vendors from jacking up prices on a whim.

Price tags in retail outlets and wet markets would also be regularly checked if these are compliant with government-mandated suggested retail prices or at least within the current average prevailing prices for certain goods.

Also, the LPCC will conduct regular inspections of weighing scales and set up price billboards in public markets. 

To help ensure proper pricing of basic necessities and prime commodities in markets and retail outlets, the provincial director of the Department of Trade and Industry will serve as the deputy leader of the price council and run the body’s monitoring efforts. Tuason serves as head of the council.

“The mayor is mobilizing the price watchdog to ensure that prices remain affordable and to prevent unscrupulous businessmen from taking advantage of the spikes in oil prices as a reason to jack up prices,” city administrator Isaias T. Bigol Jr. said in the LPCC meeting on Jan. 12. 

Venus Bayaga of the DTI regulatory unit clarified in the meeting that the government was looking at imposing price controls during calamities only as a last resort. (MAL/EAD-PIA Masbate)

• Notices
• PCDSPO
• Speeches

News from the Regions

PIA eMagazines