Focus for this year

THE Consumer Council of Fiji is keen to pursue new initiatives to further the green consumer agenda and ensure that consumer rights and responsibilities continue to be protected in the face of technological innovation and advances, says its CEO.

In the 2019-2020 financial year, the council plans to conduct a campaign on green and sustainable consumerism, Consumer Council of Fiji CEO Seema Shandil said while making a submission on the council’s 2016-2017 annual report to the parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Affairs on Wednesday.

Ms Shandil said the campaign would encourage consumers to be aware of the impact their consumption had on the environment and would include steps such as the promotion of reusable bags when shopping, encouraging consumers to pick products with biodegradable packaging and buy whitegoods with high ratings for energy and water conservation.

She said the council would also lobby for the inclusion of standards for all products entering the country to ensure consumers were protected against products, such as counterfeit mobile products, that were substandard or unsafe.

In addition to this, the council plans to lobby for financial markets to be heavily regulated. Ms Shandil said the number of complaints they received against this sector was increasing every year and analysis had revealed that irresponsible lending by financial services providers was a major issue in the retail credit market. She said non-disclosure of information and high interest rate was also a concern.

Ms Shandil said the issue of unfair or unreasonable fees and charges, and unfair terms and conditions in loan agreements continued to persist today, adding that some credit providers were giving credit to consumers who did not have the ability to repay their loans.

The council also aims to campaign for nutritional labelling of food products and lobby with the industries, health sector and Government for a star rating system to be introduced to promote healthy living.