Dept monitors 692 businesses, files four cases

KATHMANDU, DEC 06: 

Department of Commerce and Supply Management has filed four cases against traders and entrepreneurs involved in violating consumer laws in the first four months of the current fiscal year. According to the department, it has monitored about 692 businesses in the period. 

The department found a large number of businesses operating without permission from authorities. “About 206 shops in Kathmandu valley had not been registered,” said director general of the department Narayan Prasad Bidari, “Our market monitoring teams also found non-registered weights and measurement equipment being used.” 

According to the department, they were 118 instances of irregularities regarding weights and measurement, followed by non-registration at Value Added Tax (126), non-labelled items (118), date expired items (83), and unhygienic environment (65). “We collected 23 samples of consumer goods and 10 samples were tested in the laboratory,” he said. 

“The department filed cases against Koshi Gas Udhyog, Shubhsri Trading, Megha Foods and Nitesh Kumar Gupta for breaching consumer laws,” said Bidari. “We filed a case against Koshi Gas Udhyog for changing the foot ring of LPG cylinders illegally,” he said, adding that others were involved in selling unlabelled or substandard food items. 

The department destroyed about 2,086 litres of date-expired soft drinks. The major soft drinks destroyed on the spot were Coca Cola, Pepsi, Fanta, Mirinda, Sprite, Dew and others. 

The Department of Drug Administration inspected 150 medical shops and found irregularities in 125 shops. Among the 125 medical shops, the regulator has put 23 shops under the department’s scanner. 

Similarly, market monitoring teams monitored 66 meat shops in Kathmandu valley and all of them were being operated under hygienic conditions. However, slaughter houses were found to be too dirty. The government needs to take an initiative to improve slaughter houses in the valley, it said.

Source: THT