The Department of Social Welfare and Development is studying the possibility of increasing the cash grant for beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) to help them cope with higher prices of basic goods.
The Department of Trade and Industry likewise assured senior citizensthat the higher discount on basic and prime commodities will be approved within March—a move bucked by supermarket owners who said it will be passed on to them as an additional cost.
DSWD spokesperson Assistant Secretary Romel Lopez said increasing the 4Ps cash grant would help beneficiaries cope with inflation.
He said the cash grant has remained fixed since 4Ps was signed into law in 2019.
However, the process of increasing the cash grant may not be easy, Lopez said, since it will require an amendment of the 4Ps Law.
“One thing is for sure, the President gave the order to study this because the conditional cash transfer might no longer be sufficient,” he said.
The budget for the 4Ps increased by 3.57 percent to P106.3 billion this year from P102.6 billion last year.
Lopez said the additional budget would be used for the reactivation of other beneficiaries who were initially removed but reinstated after proving they remained poor.
As this developed, from the current P65 per week limit, senior citizens will be entitled to a P125 weekly discount on basic goods, including agricultural products and cooking gas.
Under the law, senior citizens are entitled to a 5 percent discount on basic supermarket goods, but it has been capped to P65 per week.
DTI Asec. Amanda Nograles said a public consultation will be held by mid-March.
She said the DTI will invite the Bureau of Internal Revenue to discuss the possibility of a tax deduction for supermarket owners if the higher discount is to be shouldered by businesses.
But for Carlos Cabochan, president of the Philippine Consumer Centric Traders Association, prices may go up if the government pushes through with the higher discount.
Supermarket owners, he said, usually have a markup of 4 to 5 percent.
This will be negated once the higher cap for the 5 percent discount of seniors is implemented, Cabochan said.
He said the P125 per week discount ceiling will likely translate to a P70 billion increase in costs for supermarkets.