News Spotlight

New Delhi, 16 May 2017

Pay MRP Only, No Shying To Question

New Delhi, 15 May (INFA): Check the price of bottled water/aerated drinks you are charged before you clear your bill at restaurants and Five Star Hotels. It should be the standard MRP on the bottle you would be paying at a Paan shop or dhaba, notwithstanding the overheads of a cooler and better ambience. This, as the Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs reiterates there can be no dual MRP across the country. This applies to packaged food items as well. Only imported items can put a sticker.  

However, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan is not happy with the law’s implementation and has asked Secretary Meena to ensure that his instructions are carried out within the next three months. He also clarified that service charge at restaurants was no longer mandatory and that the consumer should be alert. Importantly, he sought the media correct its perception that he had asked restaurant owners to lessen the portion of the items on their menus. Rather, he said that all that his Ministry has asked is that instead of writing the price they should also what quantity is the dish, so that people order accordingly and avoid wastage.

Paswan was keen that the consumers get well-versed with their rights and should not hesitate to approach the Consumer Courts as the procedure has been simplified and complaints can be made online, saving the hassle. Recall, that Paswan recently had companies questioned for selling packaged mineral water at different MRPs of bottles at different places. Further, he insisted that the expiry of packaged food and drinks must be legible and in bold. A National Consumer Helpline is in place and grievances can be lodged online 24X7. There are two All India Toll-free numbers 180011400 and 14404.

Addressing the media about the achievements of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in the past three years, Paswan today said that major reforms had been undertaken in the Public Distribution System for better targeting, transparency and accountability. These included 204,162 Fair Price shops out of 5,26,377 having electronic Point of Sale (PoS) installed; so far Chandigarh, Puducherry, Dadra & Nagar Haveli are implementing the Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme; the Centre is giving 91 per cent food subsidy to States food subsidy and it’s a different matter that State governments choose to take the credit; efforts to weed out duplicate/ineligible/bogus ration cards has yielded some results with 77.56% --17.99 crore ration cards have been Aadhaar seeded; so far 2.33 crore ration cards have been deleted/cancelled; cashless payment has made some headway with 10 States and UTs having enabled 50,117 Fair Price Shops to receive digital payments.

Insofar as prices of pulses and vegetables are concerned, Paswan insisted that while the common man may say that there is no respite, the fact is that they have come down in the past one year. Reading out a list of items there was a drop of Rs 10-50. He said that a buffer of around 20 lakh tonnes of pulses has been built ( 16.27 lakh tonnes procured from farmers and 3.79 lakh tonne of imported pulses) with the objective of managing price volatility of pulses for consumers. He also said that the limit of procuring pulses and wheat had been removed. At the same time, preference is to be given to procuring from farmers rather than export.     

Reforms have been undertaken in the FCI as well and an online depot system is in place to check leakages. Thus, soon there should be no more of excuses of rats having had a field day.  So far, the department has rolled out the online system in 520 depots. Importantly, employees have reason to cheer, as their long pending demand of pension scheme and post retirement medical scheme has been introduced with effect from December 1 2008 and April 1 2016 respectively.

According to Paswan, the Ministry is paying special attention to support farmers in Eastern States as reports of distress sale of paddy and ineffective procurement system do regularly pour in. Thus, State wise five-year Action Plan has been drawn by FCI for UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Assam. Attempts are to be made to increase procurement of rice in these States so as to reach out to all farmers in various paddy growing districts of these States.

All in all, the Minister was confident that all that has been promised under his Ministry will be achieved in the next two years. “What needs to be done, we will do.”  ---INFA