DTI to boost implementation of senior citizen discount

MANILA, Philippines  — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will ramp up efforts to help ensure that the 20-percent senior citizen discount for selected goods is honored by local establishments.

“We will continue to receive complaints and we will improve the tracking and follow-up on these cases to ensure that they are solved,” Assistant Trade Secretary Amanda Nograles, spokesperson for the DTI’s Consumer Protection Group, told the Inquirer in a phone interview late Thursday afternoon.

Nograles said they had received a total of 136 senior citizen complaints in 2023, a small portion of the 30,000 consumer complaints lodged at their office.

Earlier, the trade official said the DTI’s mandate is to implement the 5-percent special senior citizen discount for basic necessities and prime commodities.

Food items considered as basic necessities include rice, corn, fresh eggs, fresh pork, beef, poultry meat and bread. Also included in this category are canned fish and other marine products, processed milk, coffee, bottled water, laundry soap, detergent, candles and salt.

Right to choose

Meanwhile, the prime commodities category includes dried pork, dried beef, poultry meat, fresh dairy products, as well as onion and garlic.

On the other hand, she also mentioned that cases involving the 20-percent discount for the elderly are handled by the Office of the Senior Citizen Affairs, which is under the local governments, and the National Senior Citizens Commission, which is under the Office of the President.

READ: Enforcing discount for seniors not our job, says DTI

Nograles had also earlier clarified that senior citizen customers get to choose whether they want the mandatory discount for the elderly, or the discount from sales promotions of specific shops, to apply to their purchases.

“The senior citizen has the right to choose whether what is favorable to them, the 20 percent or the promotional sale. The supermarket cannot impose its option on what is best for the senior,” Nograles said.

READ: Senior citizen files suit after being denied discounts on ‘promo’ with no DTI approval

Under Republic Act No. 9994, or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, Filipinos aged 60 and above are entitled to a 20-percent discount and exempted from the value-added tax on selected goods and services that are for their exclusive use.