School supply makers urged to keep prices low

MANILA, Philippines -  The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) yesterday called on manufacturers of school supplies to keep prices reasonable for the coming school year.

“DTI is set to meet with the manufacturers, importers and retailers of school supplies to assure quality, reasonable price and sufficient supply of school materials for the coming school year. It will look into the prices of raw materials such as paper to assess the prevailing retail prices of notebook, school pads and other school materials,” Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo said.

 “The start of summer school break prompts the Department to prepare for the upcoming peak sale season of school supplies in order to avert unfair trade practices of jacking up prices with the surge in demand of said goods and proliferation of substandard and unsafe school supplies,” he added.

 For her part, Consumer Welfare Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya said the DTI will also step up its monitoring activities for school supplies not only to check on the prices but also to ensure compliance of manufacturers and importers with specific quality standards and labeling requirements.

There are existing Philippine National Standards (PNS) for school supplies and paper products such as crayons, pencils, erasers, ball point pens, marker pens, notebook, pad paper, etc., that specify the classification, physical and chemical properties, performance and labeling of a product.

For instance, crayons should be classified as regular or jumbo, should not easily break or bend on certain pressure and temperature, and should be labeled as “non-toxic” to signify that its chemical contents meet the allowed toxicity level of the standard.

Product labels are important to guide consumers in choosing affordable, safe and reliable school supplies that is worth their money. Required markings include name and address of manufacturer, trade or brand name, type or size, country of manufacture, quantity, toxicity warning and instruction for use. Other specific markings are grammage and number of leaves for notebooks and school pads, hardness symbol for lead pencils, and tip classification for ball point pens.

Non-conformance of manufacturers, importers and retailers to the standard and labeling requirements is a violation of the Republic Act 7394 or Consumer Act of the Philippines and the Standards Law. Those found not complying with the said standards shall face administrative charges, which includes a maximum fine of P300,000 per violation.