RETAILERS were warned by the Department of Trade and Industry not to overprice school supplies as the school year draws near.

DTI Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya said the price difference of some items such as notebooks and pencils should only be between 75 centavos and P2 compared to last year.

She said notebooks with new designs should not retail above P2 per piece even if they use better quality paper.

The DTI official said they have confirmed through monitoring that prices are going up.

However, Maglaya also said the recent rollbacks in prices of fuel may not be felt in terms of lower prices of school supplies until at least the second semester when oil prices are expec-ted to be cut again.

She said the school supplies being sold now were manufactured as early as March when fuel prices were still going up.

Maglaya pointed out prices of many school supplies went up when fuel prices increased because many school supplies are made of petrochemical materials.

She said the DTI recently met with makers of school supplies who said they had to increase prices especially for new designs of their products.

But she said old stocks and older designs will be sold at the “same price as last year.”

The new design of pencils will cost from 75 centavos to P1 more.