National consumer welfare policy soon

Irangika RANGE

The government has decided to formulate a national consumer welfare policy.

"As an initiative to the formulation of the national policy, a meeting was held at the Senior Ministers' Secretariat with the participation of representatives from all ministries recently," Consumer Welfare Senior Minister S B Nawinna said.

"Our major objective is to strengthen the consumer movement in Sri Lanka under this programme," he said.

He said President Mahinda Rajapaksa has instructed him to formulate a national policy for the welfare of consumers with the concurrence of all ministries relevant to consumer affairs.

"Formulating a national policy by obtaining views and proposals from various stakeholders on subject matters of consumer interest dealt by different ministries, is a gigantic task. But now we are moving towards the completion of the task," he said.

He added: "We will collect proposals from all ministries, the private sector, consumer co-operative societies, professionals and intellectuals to evolve a national policy on consumer welfare so that concerns of consumers are addressed systematically by all stakeholders. It will also make the stakeholders be more responsive to the cause of consumers."

He said every ministry related to consumer affairs directly or indirectly will have to play a prominent role to implement this policy. "I hope that every ministry would pledge their support to implement these proposals which will be beneficial for them to attract more customers."

Once the draft is prepared, it is necessary to obtain the approval of the Legal Draftsman and will be sent to the Attorney General's Department whose approval is required before it can be submitted to Parliament, the senior minister added.