Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has amended packaged commodities rules, making it mandatory for packaged commodities to display six mandatory information more prominently, covering atleast 40 per cent area of the packet, except top and bottom. Chairing the recent meeting of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) at Mussoorie, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan directed the officials of his ministry to ensure enforcement of the amended rule from July 2016.
According to the amendment, name of manufacture/packager/ importer, net quantity of product, manufacturing date, retail sale price and consumer care contacts will have to be displayed in a panel of 40 per cent of the area of the packet in readable font size. Monitoring cell will be setup to ensure strict compliance of this new provision.
Paswan said that his ministry is setting up quick response system to attend consumer complaints, existing national consumer helpline is being geared up for this purpose and now a senior level officer will monitor the disposal of complaints on daily basis. Paswan also expressed the hope that Consumer Protection Act, which has many features to safeguard interests of consumers, will be passed by the parliament soon.
Reviewing the working of BIS during the governing body meeting, the minister asked the bureau to formulate rules to ensure early implementation of new BIS Act so that culture of quality goods and services can be ushered in the country.