Prices Of Stationeries And School Supplies To Increase By 30% In 2014

Prices of stationery items are expected to go up by 20% to 30% within the first quarter of next year.

The stationery products include papers of all sorts, clips, staplers, pencils, pens, colour pencils, files, note books (school exercise note books and notepads), markers and board dusters.

Almost all these items are used in offices, schools, institutes of higher learning and homes.

Fomca adviser Professor Datuk Hamdan Adnan said that since the government announced price hikes for necessities, particularly the increase of electricity tariffs, petrol prices and sugar prices, Fomca has expected ripple effects, including price hikes for school supplies.

According to the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca), almost all prices of school supplies have been increased by at least 20%.

Industry players claimed that they were revising the prices, partly due to the increasing costs from the implementation of minimum wages and transport costs.
The speculated increase in toll rates and rentals are also expected to contribute to the increase.

Other factors include the new electricity tariff rate, higher fuel price and the currency exchange rate between the ringgit and China renminbi, as most of the imported stationery items are from China.

As the prices of uniforms, stationery, textbooks and other school supplies have raised by 20 to 30% percent, it is conservatively estimated that parents would need to spend RM80 to RM100 more on school reopening for each child.

Some parents told Sin Chew Daily that they averagely spent RM300 to RM500 on school supplies, excluding school fees, administrative fees and tuition fees, for each child during school reopening in the past.

With prices of school items expected to increase 30 per cent next year, many parents are taking full advantage of the year-end sales at various departmental stores and retail outlets around the city to shop for school items for their children.

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“Although stationery are significantly smaller and not as expensive as school uniforms or school bags, the fact that they will cost more than the current price will affect our shopping budget. But since they are also essentials, we will have to buy them anyway,” said, mother of four, Rosmah Iyonong, 42.

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Meanwhile, Yasumoi Sunga from Telipok said RM400 is just for buying school uniforms, school bags and shoes for her two daughters.
“Both my girls are now in secondary school, so I need to buy more. Buying stationery and revision books are costly but I don’t mind spending on books because it is for their future.
“Everything can cost me nearly RM1,000 but I will budget my spending."

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Federation president Tey Tong Sing said the increase, expected to be 20% to 30%, would help to offset the rising costs borne by industry players, and likely to be enforced by March.

About 90% of stationery and books sold here are imported from China, he said, adding that since fuel prices went up recently, freight fee had also gone up by about 30%.

“We can absorb additional costs of 5% to 10% higher than the actual cost, but this is not the case. What with the goods and services tax (GST) to be implemented in 2015, we will have to increase prices if we are to make a living."

On the other hand, Ling urged the government to open tender of stationery supplies for government offices to non-bumiputras.
At present, Ling said only bumiputra suppliers were allowed to submit their tenders to supply stationery to government offices.

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“I hope the Government will consider tax exemption for stationery items sold by shops owned by or based in educational institutions, as the market for these places are students,” he said.

Tey, however, appealed to shop owners to complete sales of their current stock at the usual price as the increase in price will only apply to new stock obtained from the date of implementation.