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| Monday, 9 August 2004 |
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Fifty Consumer Protection Societies in every district to end trader tyranny by Chandani Jayatilleke In modern society, consumers' rights play a major role. Many governments have strong laws to protect consumers' rights, and their citizens are very much aware of what their rights are. Similarly, the consumers in Sri Lanka should try to find out what their rights are and learn to fight injustices or seek redress. They should not allow traders to perform illegal activities by taking them for a ride, Chairman, Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA), Dr. M.I.M. Musheen said.
The CAA is on course to fulfill this mission. "We are in the process of building a strong awareness campaign and creating consumer societies which can take the responsibility at district level. Our aim is to establish 50 Consumer Protection Societies in every district. Once the project is completed people will automatically come to know the value of the Authority and how to make use of the Authority for their benefit, he told the Daily News in an interview. Though Sri Lankan consumers are intelligent, they are backward when it comes to seeking redress. "They should put more emphasis on protecting consumers' rights. If they don't do so, that means they are indirectly encouraging more and more fraud and allowing frauds to fool the consumer, he said. Following are the excerpts from the interview: Consumer awareness The eight-month old Authority has now launched a major awareness campaign about consumer rights throughout the country. The program done in cooperation with the Divisional Secretariats is aimed at setting up powerful Consumer Protection Societies which are voluntary organisations - which will help the Authority to disseminate this message and working with the CAA officials. This will also enable the consumers from rural areas to make their complaints. And it is also a good opportunity for the Authority to gather public opinion on various issues directly affecting the consumer. The program is done on a district basis. In Colombo alone, we have already set up 50 such societies. Currently being done in Anuradhapura and the next few will be in Vavuniya, Polonnaruwa and Kalutara. Pensioners such as teachers, government officers join these organisations and collaborate with district organisations and help us to do our functions. Price controlling Since the Open General Licence method came into effect, there's no price controlling system. As such you can't have any price control. You can monitor the price. We can do the price monitoring. We are monitoring the prices of essential items. The price controlling is in five essential items, including wheat flour, milk powder, LP Gas, Mosquito coils and match boxes. Besides wheat flour, other items were declared by the former Trade Minister. The UPFA Government added the wheat flour to the list, considering the importance of price controlling in this sector as well. Importers of these items should come to us if they intend to increase the price due to various reasons. They cannot increase the price without the CAA's approval. "Traders usually come to us to get price increases when there are internal and external issues that would demand a price increase. However we have a mechanism to allow price increases. Firstly we gather all the information, analyze and find the real cause for the increase and we decide whether the increase is fair. If it is fair we allow them. If it is unfair we fix a price. We don't allow unfair increases." Complaints According to current figures the Authority receive about 20 to 30 complaints a day. The Chairman says that in actual terms there may be more cases where the consumer rights had been breached. But many people do not take any interest to complain and seek redress. That's one reason why we put much effort to educate people in this subject. People can make any complaint; be it against a trader or a trading house. When a consumer is deceived by a trader or a trader is deceived by another trader, they can come to the CAA for redress. "We have a Director in-charge of investigation and enforcement. Most of the cases are related to selling unhealthy food items, selling at exorbitant prices, selling damaged articles, not paying back money for returning fraud articles and poor quality products." In such cases the Authority summons both parties and listens to both sides and a solution is given. Most cases end up in a amicable way. Inspection Additionally we have a team sent to different areas for routine raids and market surveys. We have the strength and the capacity to perform this job efficiently. However the Authority is planning to further strengthen this area and conduct more raids in future with more people. "We intend to absorb the staff who worked in the Dept of Price Control in this regard. They could help us to efficiently carry out the work". Amendment to the Act The present power is not enough. The Government is planning to amend the Act in order to gain more power. We feel that there should be more teeth in certain sections in the Act. For instance there have been incidents, when a company changes the formula of a particular milk powder they increase the price, saying that the new product doesn't come under the CAA. In such instances, the CAA is powerless to take any legal action against the persons who break the law. In future, for instance, milk powder of any kind will come under the same category, so that the importers and manufacturers will not be able to take the consumers for a ride. Another issue we have come across with regard to trading is the 'mafia' menace. Few merchants are controlling the market today. They monopolise certain fields and imports. And they command the price. That shouldn't be allowed. We are trying to avoid this situation in future. Gas prices Sri Lanka produces only 1,500 metric tonnes of gas per year and the total requirement is 12,000 metric tonnes per month. So the country, has to import the balance and the price of gas changes with the world market prices. When there is a price increase in the world market, the price has to be increased in the local market, because the importers cannot sell gas at a loss. In Sri Lanka, 20% of the population uses gas for domestic purpose. In this context, the importers will have to come to the Authority to make price changes. The recent price increase was actually due in February. But the Government decided to provide them a subsidy and manage the price without any increase. But in recent weeks the price of gas in the world market went up and the Government could no longer provide the subsidy as it was losing a lot of money - the money which can be used in development activities. So they stopped the subsidy and allowed a price hike. If the Government keeps on providing a subsidy, the economy will collapse. However, if the gas importers wish to increase the price, they always have to come to the Authority to get the approval. Burden on consumers "I would also like to tell the people that no Government would want to put any burden on the consumers - but there are times the governments are helpless and they are forced to allow the increase of prices of certain goods. No one can control this situation. And similarly, the prices in the world market cannot be controlled by individual Governments. Bringing down CoL A practical solution to bring down the Cost-of-Living (CoL) is to increase the local production. More local products should be encouraged. For instance, paddy cultivation should be encouraged to the fullest. In the present context, farmers have no money to continue farming and they borrow money from the banks and other sources. What happens at the end is the farmers end up with debts because farming is no longer a profitable venture. To avoid this situation and bring glory into farming, instead of providing a subsidy to farmers, the governments should implement a mechanism to purchase the paddy from the farmers at a high price and sell the rice at a low price. This will benefit both the farmer and the consumer. Then the farmers will have enough money to continue farming and the consumers will be happy to buy rice at a reduced price. Also instead of using synthetic fertiliser, our farmers should be encouraged to use organic fertiliser. Organic products will be the future of farming in the world. These measures will certainly help get more people into farming. The CAA office will be moved to the CWE Head Quarters at Vauxhall Street, Union Place this month. |
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