Consumer groups seek awareness fund

KATHMANDU, MAY 14: 

Consumer groups active in consumer rights protection have urged the government to allocate a fund to expand awareness at the grassroots level.

Activities of consumer groups have been limited to the capital and a few towns due to the lack of financial resources, so the government must build a fund to mobilise them, said general secretary of Forum for Protection of Consumer Rights-Nepal Jyoti Baniya.

“The fund will help generate consumer awareness across the country,” he said, adding that it will also make consumer groups responsible. It will help build a close tie between consumer groups and regulating authorities involved in monitoring the market and end black marketing, syndicate and hoarding, he said. 

Developed countries have been providing such support for years. American and European countries have millions of dollars for consumer groups. Neighbouring India has been providing IRs 100,000 to each consumer group as ‘token support’. 

“We are not asking for a lot of money now, but the government must start a token support from the coming fiscal year,” said president of Consumer Rights Research Forum Madhav Timilsina. According to him, the government should provide around Rs 150,000 to Rs 200,000 to each consumer group.

Regulating agencies have also experienced a fund shortage for years while mobilising consumer groups. “Consumer groups are voluntary organisations but a token support from the government is a must to increase accountability,” said director of the Department of Commerce Shankar Prasad Paudel, who is looking after consumer cases in the department. 

The department has developed a partnership programme to mobilise consumer groups for awareness raising activities. “The department has a budget of Rs 500,000 for the current fiscal year to start the partnership programme but it has been delayed due to the lack of guidelines. 

According to Paudel, the department has drafted the guideline for the partnership programme along with a code of conduct to make consumer groups responsible. The programme will be launched once they endorse the code of conduct.

About five dozen consumer groups are registered across the country but only half a dozen have a network across the country. Nepali consumer groups are not specialised in consumer issues, so their activities have been limited to attending to market monitoring activities for regulating agencies.

Source: THT