90pc market wrongdoers defying govt summons

KATHMANDU, NOV 20 -

Around 90 percent of the firms that were found involved in anomalies in the market have been defying the summons of the Department of Commerce and Supply Management (DoCSM).

In the first quarter, the department summoned 333 businesses, but only 41 turned up to furnish their clarification. The regulator had inspected 908 businesses over the review period.

Among those summoned included big stores like Bhatbhateni Supermarket, Saleways Department Store, Blue Moon Stores of Lazimpat, Manik Store of Ason and Bhatta Sweets of Balaju.

Most of these stores were found selling date-expired products and not maintaining price lists. A number of products with them were either not registered with the Bureau of Standard and Metrology, or did not mention specification and the date of manufacture on their labels. Some of the stores were operating without Permanent Account Number (PAN), while others were not issuing bills.

However, the government has been failing to take action against these wrongdoers. Purushottam Subedi, director at DoCSM’s Monitoring Unit, said they were finding it hard to take action against the offenders due to weak legal provision. “We have to follow a lengthy process just to file cases,” he said. Subedi said the stores could send their representatives for furnishing clarification if they respond to the fist letter. “However, the proprietors themselves have to attend if the department is forced to send second letter,” he said. “We can even impose an operating ban if they repeatedly ignore our directives.” DoCSM Director General Narayan Prasad Bidari said the department would follow-up with those ignoring the summons.

Under its plan to ensure quality of commodities, the government increased DoCSM’s budget to Rs 27.5 million this year from Rs 18.6 million last year. However, the move has not yielded desired results.

Consumer activities blamed government authorities for traders defying the orders. Madhav Timilsina, president of the Consumer Rights Research Forum, accused the DoCSM officials of working just for the sake of allowances.

Meanwhile, the department, in cooperation with the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority, sealed the house of Rajendra Raj Karnikar, a valley-based trader, for imprinting fake manufacturing dates on the packets of fruit drinks of various brands.

Source: The Kathmandu Post