Efficacy of govt’s market monitoring questioned

Published: July 12, 2016 4:52 am On: Business

Pushpa Raj Acharya

Minister for Supplies Ganesh Man Pun and other government officials monitoring fish shop at Kalimati vegetable and fruit market in Kathmandu on Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Photo: RSS

Kathmandu, July 11
Consumer rights activists have started questioning the efficacy of government’s special market monitoring initiative, as a high-level team formed to look into cases of violation of consumer rights seems to be taking a soft stance against those caught red-handed in malpractices related to sales of consumer goods and services.

A high-level market monitoring team led by Supply Minister Ganesh Man Pun had recently found traders at Balkhu Agriculture, Vegetables and Fruits Market fleecing customers by tampering weighing scales. In another incident, the team had found slaughterhouses selling rotten, maggot-infested meat.
The high-level market monitoring team, which also comprises representatives of the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology, the Department of Drug Administration, the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control, Nepal Police and consumer rights groups, was formed to expedite the process of bringing those engaged in malpractices to book. It, thus, had the mandate to scrap licences of perpetrators on the spot.

However, as the week-long market monitoring drive wrapped up today, the Department of Supply Management and Consumer Protection — the authorised market monitoring agency — has not filed a single case in the court against anyone found engaged in unethical business practices.
“The market monitoring team was headed by the supply minister, who chairs the Consumer Protection Council — a high-level body for the protection of consumers’ rights. And yet, it has not taken any concrete action against the guilty,” said Jyoti Baniya, chairman of Forum for Protection of Consumers’ Rights.

Minister for Supplies Ganesh Man Pun during a monitoring at a gas bottling plant in Dhading, on Wednesday, February 24, 2016. Photo: Keshav Adhikari

According to him, the high-level team had the authority to immediately file lawsuit against those found engaged in malpractices, but it failed to exercise that right.
“Instead, the DoSMCP has decided to summon those caught red-handed and listen to their version of the story. This is an indication that those caught will soon be acquitted,” Baniya said.
The DoSMCP, on the other hand, says it had summoned the traders found engaging in unethical businesses for clarification. “The department will analyse the cases and collect the evidences before filing case against the ill-practitioners,” said Laxman Shrestha, spokesperson for DoSMCP. Baniya, on the other hand, argued that evidences collected during the monitoring were more than sufficient to file cases against them.
After collecting evidences, the DoSMCP has said it would forward the cases of slaughterhouses to the Department of Livestock Services, pharmaceuticals-related cases to the DDA, cases related to tampering of weighing machines and scales to the NBSM and other cases to the related departments.

Minister for Supplies Ganesh Man Pun informs journalists about his monitoring at the Patan Industrial Estate of Lalitpur on Wednesday, July 6, 2016. Photo: RSS

Baniya claimed that those engaged in malpractices would get immunity if the DoSMCP passed on the cases to the concerned departments, as the latter do not have the right to file cases related to consumer rights.
Baniya’s fears may not be totally unfounded, as Keshav Prasad Premy, director general of the DLS, said though the Animal Slaughterhouse and Meat Inspection Act was enacted in 1999, the law has not been enforced properly because the local bodies (municipalities, village development committees) have not shown willingness to develop properly managed slaughterhouses.
“The slaughterhouses have been run traditionally and are not identified as slaughterhouses as per the standard provisioned by the law,” he said, adding, “In this situation, we cannot take action against those who are running slaughterhouses as their traditional occupation.”
Similarly, other laws framed to protect interests of consumers are very lax.


source:https://thehimalayantimes.com/business/efficacy-govts-market-monitoring-questioned/