Inter-ministerial meet on consumer protection act July 10

FE Team | Published: July 08, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
An inter-ministerial meeting will be held on July 10 at the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) to discuss the proposed consumer protection act.
Earlier, the MoC sent the consumer protection act of 2006 to the Council of Advisers to approve it.
But, the government decided to discuss the draft consumer protection act of 2006 as the market research organisations along with civil societies had opposed the move.
However, the meeting is likely to attend by the officials from the ministries of home, law, Justice and parliamentary affairs, food and disaster management, agricultural, local government, Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), national security intelligence, Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB).
The market research organisations and civil societies are alleging that the consumer protection act, prepared in 2006, will not be able to protect the rights of the consumers as it has many loopholes.
They also said that the draft act of 2006 has no provision to identify syndication or cartel of traders and bring them to book.
Currently, the country does not have any consumer protection act and the victims might not get proper justice under the Bangladesh penal codes.
According to the draft of the consumer protection act of 2006, a separate department will only be constituted to look after the consumer interests across the country.
It did not propose to form separate courts or tribunals to bring the culprits to book.
The affected consumers will file allegations to a department and its officials will file cases against the dishonest traders if they find it cognizable, according to the draft act of 2006.
In the meantime, sources at the market research organisations said the proposals prepared by the Trade and Commerce Monitoring Cell (TCMC) of BDR might better protect the rights of the consumers.
The TCMC prepared some proposals on the consumer act and sent it to the government one month back.
The TCMC has combined the proposals of consumer protection acts of 2006 and 2004.
According to the proposed consumer protection act of 2007 by the TCMC, the affected consumer will be able to file in three arbitration boards at district, city and upazila levels.
Besides, the victim himself will appear before the tribunals, if he is insolvent to hire lawyers, to seek justice, according to consumer protection act of 2007.