22 businesses closed down for bad market practices
KATHMANDU, FEB 11 -
The government has closed down 22 businesses including eateries, petrol pumps, factories and shops across the country for bad market practices in the first six months of the fiscal year.
They had been caught by market monitoring teams selling substandard goods, cheating customers on prices or weight or not maintaining hygiene when processing food. As per the prevailing system, the Department of Commerce and Supply Management gives the traders time to improve themselves or collects samples for a lab test, depending on the seriousness of the case. The department said that it would decide whether to allow the 22 businesses to reopen or ban them permanently after a re-inspection and examination of the test results.
“We take legal action only if the test results show that the products being sold pose a risk to human health and violate consumer rights,” said Narayan Prasad Bidari, director general of the department. He added that they had filed cases against three sellers of mineral water, sweets and bakery products.
After inspecting 1,733 businesses during the period mid-July to mid-January, the department collected 45 samples and sent them for tests to the Department of Food of Technology and Quality Control and the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology.
In the same period last year, the department inspected 762 businesses, collected 29 samples for tests and filed court cases against four traders.
Despite an intensification of market monitoring by the department, it has not made a big dent in bad market practices. According to its half-yearly report, 18 percent of the shops inspected have been selling consumer goods that lack labelling. Similarly, 9 percent of the businesses were found to be selling date expired products.
Product labels are required by law to contain information about the price, manufacturing and expiry dates, nutrition facts and other relevant notices. Department officials said that the products that are usually sold without labelling are local spices, bread, noodles and spices imported from China and Thailand that are used in meat items.
Similarly, the out-of-date products that were being sold include different brands of biscuits, food items, dried fruits and beverages like Coke, Fanta, Pepsi, Mirinda, Dew and Sprite, according to the department. During the review period, 4,329 l of such date-expired cold drinks were destroyed by government market monitoring teams.
An official at the department said that the market situation had not improved despite the increased frequency of market monitoring as they had no legal rights to take strict action on the spot. He added that they had drafted a new rule and submitted it to the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies for approval. The rule had envisaged imposing a fine on the spot during the monitoring if traders were found to be violating government rules.
After the market inspection, the department has ordered 475 firms to display price lists and 231 businesses selling consumer products to submit certification of their weighing machines.
Similarly, 149 businesses were warned not to sell date-expired products.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
