A never-ending fleece by malls

About 120 cases registered in recent times

Fleecing customers by charging more than the maximum retail price or MRP continues unabated.

The legal metrology department recently raided several malls in the city and registered around 120 cases and seized goods worth `1 crore.

As per the rules, products sold in shops must display the batch number, date of manufacture, maximum retail price, place and name of the manufacturer, date of manufacture and expiry and other warnings as stipulated. It is also mandatory for the manufacturer to print the details of the company official concerned to redress grievances and complaints.

“Some shopkeepers paste barcode stickers over the MRP. The difference in price can vary from `2 to `50. The MRP itself is fixed taking into account all the overheads including taxes borne by the distributor, manufacturer and retailer,” says M. Srinivas Reddy, state president of the Consumer Rights Protection Organisation.

“There is no regular monitoring by officials resulting in repeat violations. Consumers are also not aware about their rights,” he added.

After registering cases and confiscating the goods, notice is issued to the retailer and the violators mentioning the compounding fee. The management of the establishment or the manufacturer pays the penalty or provides an explanation to the officials and gets away.

An official in the legal metrology department gave the usual excuse of shortage of staff to explain the lack of scrutiny. He said district level officials including those working in the city are handling additional charge of three different posts.

Some shopkeepers paste barcode stickers over the MRP. The difference in price can vary from `2 to `50. The MRP itself is fixed taking into account all the overheads including taxes borne by the distributor, manufacturer and retailer.

— M. SRINIVAS REDDY, state president of Consumer Rights Protection Organisation.