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Mixed reaction to move for consumer scales in shops
View(s):Vendors will face fines if they fail to follow a new mechanism that gives consumers an opportunity to check the weight of purchased items.
The fines system will come into effect following an awareness campaign to be carried out during the next three weeks, Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) Chairman of CAA Rumy Marzook said.
All traders from this month have to install weighing scales that consumers can use
The CAA has issued a gazette notification directing all traders to install from this month, weighing machines that consumers can use. The scales should be verified for accuracy by the Measurements Units Standards and Services Department. A single owner violating the regulation will be liable to a fine of Rs. 10,000, while a partnership company will be imposed a fine of Rs. 100,000.
“The CAA has received more than 500 complaints regarding the reduction in real weight of a loaf of a bread since January. The legal requirement for a loaf of bread is 450gm but unscrupulous traders have reduced the quantity to 300gm,” Mr. Marzook said. “The government and CAA have decided to have the scales installed conspicuously so that consumers can obtain a loaf of bread after weighing it. This will enable the public to weigh bread or other goods prior to purchasing them at supermarkets, bakeries and grocery stores and, if the goods are found to be underweight they can return or exchange them or they can complain to the CAA,” he said.
Mr. Marzook said the new law would not cover complaints received about bread or buns sold by vendors in three-wheelers due to lack of monitoring officers.
He said butcher shops would also be subject to the new law. Corruption had a devastating impact on societies so the government had made this move to bring “transparency into the country”, Mr. Marzook said.
CAA’s Director of Consumer Affairs and Information Chandrika Thilakaratne said people should weigh all items, even at supermarkets, as officials had found canned fish containing less than the weight indicated on the label. “The average weight of the canned fish is 65 per cent, which can be checked by the printed label on the can,” she said.
The Chairman of the Bakery Owners Association N.K Jayawardene claimed it was very expensive for all bakery outlets to buy scales. There were mixed reactions from the traders and public about the proposal, and many traders were not aware of the new law.The owner of the JP gram store, Jaya Prakash, said having separate scales so that consumers could weigh items was of little purpose.
“Even with two different scales, the trader can manipulate both. To have two scales in one shop is not affordable. If the government donates scales the traders won’t be able to manipulate them,” he said. Luxmy Senaratne, a young sales assistant at the Raja Bojun restaurant, said she was not aware of the new law.
“If that law is to be properly implemented the government must create an awareness programme to familiarise traders and consumers with it,” she said.
“As an owner of a reputed company I was not aware of such a law,” a franchise owner of a Perera & Sons outlet, Rajeev Fernando, said, adding that in such circumstances if there were CAA raids his shop would face large fines.
“The government should inform the public about the consequences that would follow if there were no weighing machines,” he said. Kumaran Ramachandran of the Jayamaha Bakery in Wattala, said bakers did not know the weight of the bread they baked and added that no traders had received complaints about weight.
“As a customer I purchase goods from several areas in Colombo. There is a difference in quantity and the price of the goods, especially in bread that I purchase from various shops,” a housewife from Pepiliyana, Tamara Gunatilleke, said. “I believe that having separate scales to weigh the items in all the retail outlets is not practical and realistic because the consumers also may start to deceive the traders,” said Sivakumari Subramaniam, a housewife in Wattala.