STOP the practice of short changing, the Department of Trade and Industry 11 (DTI 11) warned business establishments in the region on Wednesday, January 4.
DTI 11 regional director Maria Belenda Q. Ambi told Sun.Star Davao in an interview yesterday that they strongly enjoin all establishments in the region to abide with Republic Act 10909 or An Act Prohibiting Business Establishments from Giving Insufficient or No Change to Consumers and Providing Penalties and to end the short changing practices.
Last Tuesday, December 3, the central office of the trade and industry department released an advisory thru its social media accounts that the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the "No Shortchanging Act of 2016" was already signed last December 21, 2016.
It is stipulated in the law that business establishments, registered or not, shall be prohibited from shortchanging a consumer, even if such change is only of a small amount; changing in any form other than the present currency such as candies; and asking the consumers for permission to be exempted from the provisions of the act and its IRR for any reason.
DTI said violators of this act shall be penalized with P5OO or three percent of the gross sales of the business establishment on the day of the violation, whichever higher for the first offense; P5,OOO or five percent (5%) of the gross sales for second offense; for the third offense, P15,000 or seven percent of the gross sales of the business establishment on the day of the violation, whichever is higher, will be collected and the license to operate of the business establishment shall, upon the recommendation of the DTI, be suspended for three months by the appropriate government agency; and P25,000 or 10 percent of the gross sales of the business establishment on the day of the violation, whichever is higher, and the license to operate of the business establishment shall, upon the recommendation of the DTI, be revoked by the appropriate government agency for the fourth offense.
For the procedure in filing a complaint against business establishments, the consumer shall submit a letter of complaint together with a copy of documentary evidence to the DTI not later than 10 working days after the violation was committed.
“I would also encourage consumers to be more vigilant and invoke their right as far as this issue is concerned,” Ambi said.
She added that DTI 11 will do extensive information campaign thru consumer education, radio, TV, print and social media.
