Watch out for those crooked vendors

By Kurulu Kariyakarawana

Low quality vegetables being recovered by the CAA

Seized substandard products being destroyed by a CAA employee

An unhygienic place used to manufacture substandard tomato ketchup

A stock of poor quality tomato sauce

Its only two more days to the beginning of a brand new year. Christmas ended in a grand gesture followed by many festivities. Most people have fulfilled their lists of seasonal goodies for the new year but many are still seen busily engaged in last minute shopping. Bazaars and boutiques filled with consumers opened till late night tells nothing but the shoppers' keenness to stock up their houses with essential items cum fancy goods sold at amazingly low prices.

Many people wait until the last moment of a year to buy goods to catch a good bargain at a year-end sale.

Some collect money solely for this purpose and some others lavishly use their credit cards to buy goods beyond the means of their spending capabilities. But it's noteworthy that how many would be aware of the quality of their purchase in a mad rush. Relying entirely on the salesmen the consumers buy goods which could be substandard, prices altered as well as products with altered expiry dates. Except for the trust the consumer had placed in the trader, the need of a solid mechanism to control this process is always required.

It is the sole responsibility of the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) to make sure that aforesaid mechanism is put into practice and bring the perpetrators to book. It is also their prime responsibility to safeguard the consumer in many trade related aspects once they are in the market.

This is proved by the number of complaints received by the CAA every month and the nature of the cases. CAA as a responsible government department comes under the Ministry of Cooperatives and Internal Trade which is vested with the authority to look into the cases of violations of provisions stated in the Consumer Affairs Authority Act No. 09 of 2003.

The common violations of the Act are the instances of selling goods at higher prices, selling goods sans displaying price tags, selling out-dated products, distorting facts and figures of the labels, not displaying the prices of the products that are being advertised in newspapers or on television commercials, selling substandard products, misleading the customers by giving false information about the sales, not giving the required warranty schemes for certain expensive products such as electrical goods as well as concealing stocks to create an artificial shortage in the instances of demanding price hikes.

The CAA is given clear instructions on how to act on these instances and what legal action should be taken on each offence. Although the complaints received daily include the types of offences mentioned before, they are also requested to look into the poor hygiene conditions maintained by the eateries or restaurants as well. Monitoring the hygienic levels of a food handling establishment directly comes under the supervision of Public Health Inspectors of a respective Urban or Municipal Council.

Although they are the officials who have the sole authority to monitor these particular issues, not merely once or twice the CAA raided into unpleasant and unhygienic eateries due to the number of complaints they received.

Deputy Director CAA Investigation Division Asela Bandara told the Sunday Observer that considering the number of complaints they receive on unhygienic eateries, despite the fact that they are not being the sole authority responsible for monitoring them, shows the amount of trust the public has placed on them. The inefficiency and inactive attitude of the Public Health Inspectors and the growing trend of receiving complaints by the CAA has outlined the faith the public has in the latter in the recent times.

During the past few years the role of CAA has developed into a state where many cases detected by them were heard and seen through the media. From raiding into local groceries to seize illegally increased prices and breaking into large warehouses hiding stocks of milk foods due to discrepancies in price increasing demands, the CAA has done a commendable job. Except for the month of December the CAA has conducted 23, 049 raids countrywide throughout the year which earned a revenue of Rs.78, 417, 700 for the government. In 2012 they have done 27, 746 raids including December that gained a sum of Rs. 92, 099, 650 as state revenue through fines. Except for the month of December the number of raids conducted in 2012 was 26, 230.

There is a significant drop of the number of complaints received this year according to the available statistics which is a good indicator that there are less offences reported compared to the previous year. One of the most common issues the local public suffered was the illegal price hikes of traders on essential and non essential items. This was widely seen until last year but due to the constant raids and monitoring the perpetrators fear to repeat the same mistake, the CAA believes.

The majority of the complaints had been reported in the Western Province where 2, 828 cases were reported from Colombo District which is the highest number of all districts. Gampaha reported 2, 409 cases while 2, 392 detections had been done in Kandy District.

The least number of detections had been carried out in Hambantota District which is 394 cases under the Southern Province. The highest number of cases had been conducted between June and September where 2, 543 cases were reported in the month of July in 2013. However, this figure is different compared to 2012 which the highest figure of 3, 650 reported in January.

The number of cases reported seemed to have gradually gone down since then where only 1, 516 cases had been reported in December 2012.

The CAA warns the public to be aware when shopping especially in the festive season where many could easily be deceived by unlawful vendors.

The consumers who have complaints regarding any trade or sale related issues can contact the hotlines (011 7755482 - 3) provided by the CAA. These complaints are welcomed by the CAA and the anonymity of the complainant is assured. Mr. Bandara said that tough legal action could be taken against offenders which includes a fine or a six months prison sentence.

The offences such as selling for higher prices is dealt with Section 11 of CAA Act and offences such as not displaying price, misleading the consumer, selling outdated products or selling substandard products can be penalised respectively on Sections of 26, 30, 31 and 12.

The public is therefore advised not to be hesitant when they come across places where provisions of the CAA Act are violated and to render support by reporting such instances to the authorities to control the problem.