By BERNIE MAGKILAT
Prices of notebooks and pad papers have gone up due to the high cost of raw materials imported from China and the depreciation of the peso against the US dollar, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
The DTI releases the suggested retail price (SRP) every year before the opening of classes to assist consumers in their purchase of school items.
The Gabay sa Pamimili ng School Supplies was published last May 12, 2018 and is already posted on the DTI’s e-Presyo, which can be accessed through www.e-presyo.dti.gov.ph.
The SRP list covers specific brands of notebook, pad paper, pencil and ball pen, crayon, eraser, sharpener, and ruler.
For this year, the DTI reported that several brands of notebooks and pad papers increased their prices. However, prices of other school supplies remained stable.
The SRPs of some brands of composition, writing, and spiral notebooks increased by P1.00 to P4.00. Merit, on the other hand, did not increase its prices. Composition and writing notebooks are still priced at P12.75 (without plastic cover) and P34.00 (with plastic cover) while their spiral notebook without plastic cover is still priced at P19.00.
Similarly, some brands of writing pad papers (grade 1-4) increased by P0.50 to P6.00 while for intermediate paper, some brands also raised their prices by P1.75 to P5.00.
Meanwhile, some pencil brands recorded an increase from P1.00 to P4.50, while the other brands maintained their last year’s prices.
Generally, some brands of ball pens did not increase their prices since last year, except for three brands which recorded an increase by P1.00 to P6.00.
