NCSC urges businesses to digitize amid calls to scrap senior purchase booklets

The National Commission of Senior Citizens (NCSC) on Monday called on business owners to go digital in monitoring the transactions of senior citizens in case their purchase booklets be removed as a requirement to avail of government-mandated discounts. 

NCSC chairman Franklin Quijano made the call as he suggested the purchase booklets of senior citizens—which typically serves as a record to prevent overbuying and abuse of discount benefits—-be replaced with a centralized database.

“If itong mga negosyante na ‘to ay prepared din na mag-digitalize, hindi na mahihirapan mag-monitor,” he said in a public briefing.

(If businessmen are also prepared to go digital, it will not be difficult to monitor the senior citizens’ purchases.)
 
“Kunwari sa isang gamot, kung ang data sharing ay available, malalaman at malalaman mo ilan ang binili sa buwan na ito at ano ang basehan ng pamimili na ‘yan. May reseta ba? Or kung over the counter, lumampas ba sa today’s consumption?”

(If data sharing is available, you will know, for example, how many medicines were purchased this month and what was the basis of that purchase. Was there a prescription? Or if it's over the counter, did it exceed today's amount for consumption?)

Quijano also hoped Congress, with the help of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), would push for the development of a centralized database for senior citizens’ transactions.

Last week, House Deputy Majority Leader Erwin Tulfo called for the removal of the purchase booklet requirement, calling it a "useless and additional burden" for senior citizens to avail of their 20% discount.

Tulfo also argued that many seniors tend to forget their booklets at home so they were not avail of the discounts by business establishments.—RF, GMA Integrated News