SHOPKEEPERS CHEATING CONSUMERS WITH IMPUNITY

ARA (RNI) Deceiving of consumers continues unabated in Bhojpur district right under the nose of the officials concerned but no action is taken so far against the recalcitrant shopkeepers.

The shopkeepers are arbitrarily not giving proper receipts for the goods purchased as per the rules that cause a lot of problems for the consumers. Without authentic receipts, consumers cannot file a case in the consumer court against the fraud committed to them by the shopkeepers. In such a situation, frauds towards consumers cannot be checked. Whereas due to the concerned department not taking any effective action in this matter, the morale of the shopkeepers is very high.

With a view to provide justice and protest various types of consumers, the Consumers Protection Act was enacted in the year 1986 and it was amended from time to time. The last amendment was made in the year 2019 and it provided a lot of relieves to the consumers so that they could get the right product at the right price. But even after so many years, there is still a lack of information among the consumers. Only a small number of people have information about the receipts given to them by the shopkeepers including consumer courts. This is why shopkeepers act arbitrarily. Regarding this, the Consumer Forum, on the occasion of National Consumer Day, organizes Consumer Awareness Programme only on paper and even some advocates and employees do their duty. As a result, awareness is not created among the consumers. The District administration also does not launch any awareness campaign among the consumers.

There are a total 18368 shops are registered in the Commercial Tax Department in Bhojpur district out of which only 8630 shops are registered for central tax and 10050 shops are registered for the State ta whereas there more than two lakh shops in Bhojpur district. Of these, in Ara alone, there are more than 30,000 shops ranging from bylanes to major markets which have not been registered. This causes a loss of lakhs of rupees of revenue to the government, yet the concerned department does not take any action against them.

The Central Consumer Protection Authority was included in the Consumer Protect Act 2019 with the objective to protect to protect the rights of the consumers. This authority also looks into the matters related to unfair trade practices, misleading advertisements and violation of consumer rights.

The rights that the consumers have are the rights to get information about the quality, purity, efficiency, price and standard of goods or services, the rights to be safe from dangerous goods and services, the rights to be protected from unfair or restrictive trade practices, the rights to get various products at a competitive price, availability of different types of goods or services, overcharging or  unclear pricing, unfair or restrictive trade practices, sale of life-threatening goods or services and sale of defective goods or services.

When contacted, Assistant Commissioner, Commercial Tax, Naresh Kumar said that all these things will be investigated, the shopkeepers will be motivated to get their shops registered otherwise action will be taken against them and the consumers will be protected.