Ismail Hossain
The capacity of the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) is too limited to protect the consumers from products and services-related irregularities and anomalies.
It received 6,140 complaints alone in 2016-17 and expected the allegations to be doubled in the current fiscal year with growing number of complaints reaching the watchdog body.
More than 5,000 complaints have already been filed until December 2017 and the the DNCRP was expecting more than 12,000 by the end of fiscal year 2017-18, according to documents obtained by the FE.
Earlier, only 1,105 complaints came to the organisation from June 2009 to June 2016.
As against, the capacity of the organisation still remained too limited, said Syed Tawhidur Rahman, director of DNCRP.
DNCRP has a total of 212 manpower including officers and staffs. It has offices in all districts, but those are mere offices and not adequately empowered to protect the consumers.
"Even if one per cent consumers in the country come to us with complaints, we would not be able to resolve them with this capacity," he said. The directorate has not only manpower shortage, there are legal problems too.
It deposited Tk 250 million to the government exchequer until December 2017 which was realised as fine from 35,018 guilty business houses since DNCRP's inception in 2009.
DNCRP received around 700 complaints against irregularities, cheating or false advertisements by mobile phone operators during June to December of 2017, but they could not resolve the issues.
A court order obtained by one of the mobile operators against DNCRP's dealing with such allegations, which is also preventing them from investigating into the complaints.
On April 17 in 2017, DNCRP fined mobile operator Robi Tk 4,00,001 on three separate charges of deceiving clients with internet packages, after receiving complaint from a customer.
Grameenphone was fined Tk 25 million in February last year while Robi was also fined Tk 8,50,000 on different occasions.
On May 28 last year, Robi obtained an order from the High Court against DNCRP's dealing with such complaints.
Consumers' Association of Bangladesh (CAB) chairman Ghulam Rahman said: "Yes, they have many problems and constraints, but they are trying."
He stressed the need for redefining many legal provisions in the law and said that the people do not know much about the directorate. There must be massive campaign about the DNCRP, he added.
DNCRP assistant director (investigation) and National Consumers' Complaint Center at DNCRP said they resolved 94 per cent complaints in 2016-17 fiscal year.
According to DNPRC, most of the complaints were related to being cheated or deceived by the eateries.
Ambarin Zaman Khan, a human resource staff at a private university, filed a complaint against a restaurant for overpricing a bottle of mineral water.
"When she ordered a 500 ml bottle of water with her food, she found that she had been charged Tk5 extra for the bottle," she explained the incident on a facebook post.
After ten days of filing the complaint, she received a reply from the authorities asking to come for a hearing.
She went to the directorate where both parties gave statements on July 31 last year. The restaurant owner was fined Tk 5,000.
Ambarin Zaman Khan, the plaintiff, received Tk 1,250, which is 25 per cent of the compensation, as stipulated by the Consumers' Right Protection Act 2009, on July 31 last year.
After the issue was resolved, she wrote on facebook that, 'justice has been served'.
Around 3,000 plaintiffs received Tk 4.1 million as 25 per cent compensation until December 2017, according to the directorate.
According to section 2(3) of the Consumer Rights Protection Act 2009, the following persons can file a complaint to the DNCRP: (a) any consumer; (b) one or more consumers having same interest; (c) any consumer association registered under any Act; (d) the National Consumers' Right Protection Council or any officer authorised to file any complaint on its behalf; (e) the government, or any government officer authorised by the government in this behalf; or (f) the concerned wholesaler and retailer.
The procedure of filing complaint is regulated by the 2009 Act. In accordance with section 76(1), any person, who is generally a consumer or likely to be a consumer, may make a written complaint to the Director General or any person empowered by the Director General against any anti-consumer right practice under the 2009 Act.
The complaint must be in writing and have the receipt of the products or services annexed to it. The complaint can be made in person, through fax, e-mail, website or other electronic means of communication or through any other way.
The complainant must mention his full name, father and mother's names, address, contact details and profession.
According to section 60 of the Act, the complaint needs be made to the Director General or any officer of the directorate within 30 (thirty) days of arising the cause of action of any anti-consumer right practice.
If a complaint is proved to be true after investigation or inquiry, the Director General or any officer empowered by him may impose fine upon the person. When the fine is realised, 25 per cent of it will be paid to the complainant.
However, if the complainant is an officer or an employee of the Directorate, he/she shall not be entitled to receive such 25 per cent realised fine.
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