Centre amends the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 for enhanced protection of consumer rights - (08 Nov 2021)

Consumer

In order to protect interest of consumers, Central Government amends the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 for safeguarding Consumer Rights. The amendments to come into effect from 1st April, 2022. The Department of Consumer Affairs under Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has omitted the Rule 5 of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities), Rules 2011 defining the Schedule II prescribing the pack sizes of various types of commodities. Now a new provision has been introduced to indicate the unit sale price on pre packed commodities, which will allow easier comparison of the prices of the commodities at the time of purchase.

Amendment is made to ensure that consumers are able to make an informed choice and reduced compliance for industries. For protection of Consumer rights, Unit Sale Price for all pre packed commodities meant for retail sale is introduced. The provisions of declarations of MRP has been simplified by removing illustration and providing for making the mandatory declaration of MRP in Indian currency inclusive of all taxes. This has allowed the manufacturer/packer/importer to declare the MRP on the pre packed commodities in a simplified manner.

Rules for declaring the commodities sold in pre packed commodities in numbers have been eased out for reducing the compliance burden for manufacturer /importer/packer. Earlier such declarations could be denoted as ‘N’ or ‘U’ only. Now the quantities can be expressed in terms of the number or unit or piece or pair or set or such other word which represents the quantity in the package. This will remove the ambiguity of declaration of quantity sold by number in pre packed commodities.

Tags : RULES AMENDMENT CONSUMER RIGHTS