translated from Spanish: Economy Minister accuses inappropriate operation of the market of textbooks and Announces measures

the Minister of Economics, José Ramón Valente, announced a package of measures to encourage a reduction in the cost of texts school, after the study of the economic national prosecutor (FNE), which revealed an inadequate performance of this market, situation that has affected that both consumers and the State have not had access to optimal business conditions. Office productivity and national entrepreneurship (OPEN) collected the FNE proposals to perfect the market of textbooks and, at an early stage, will work in the implementation of four of them, in parallel to the study of the remaining. Thus, OPEN work advances complement the measures recommended by the FNE, that the Ministry of education has implemented to improve the market in the public sector. “Between all school fees in March, uniforms, tools and texts; almost 70% corresponds to textbooks, so if we can lower the prices we will be giving a very important relief to all parents and guardians in a complicated month as March”, Valente said. The package of measures for the private sector considers the creation of a platform of information online, in charge of the national consumer service (Sernac), so that schools and parents can compare the texts of the private market prices; the establishment of a system of accountability for schools for parents regarding the texts chosen, align incentives between schools and parents, so the price of texts is a variable that is relevant to the moments of your selection | and schools to directly negotiate the purchase of texts to reduce distribution costs. “We want to make transparent the reasons why schools choose a certain text, we want the price to be a relevant variable for schools in defining a text, which incorporates better parents in this process”, said the owner of Economy. In this regard, the authority added that “the FNE tells us that 25% of the price that parents pay corresponds to costs of distribution, so if schools the parents buy directly the texts could immediately save that 25% of the price”. The package of measures proposed by the FNE focused private would generate a 25% drop in the price of the books in the short term and up to 70% on full implementation. According to the Marauder entity, the average price per book in the private sector amounts to the $33.200 with distribution.

Original source in Spanish