Fake products galore in Sri Lanka: Some soft drinks were discovered with mosquitoes, nails and insects ; CAA says
Counterfeit products have entered the market along with trade logos posing a problem to law enforcing authorities while impacting on the business of genuine companies. ”The most dangerous thing is in the manufacture of medicinal drugs. We do not have enough resources to test whether such drugs were genuine or counterfeit products,” said Chairman Consumer Affairs Authority(CAA) of Sri Lanka Dr. R.M. K. Ratnayake at a workshop in Colombo this week on capacity building for officers of the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) organised by the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham).
CAA Consumer Affairs Director
He said due to extensive health services in the country many have died in the past owing to consuming fake drugs. “However the lives of people have been prolonged due to improvement in the health service. But new diseases have also surfaced recently. Earlier our health system was tailored to treat child, maternity care and infectious diseases. But people afflicted with kidney diseases and those who have under gone kidney transplant cannot prolong their lives when counterfeit drugs are taken,” he said.
Referring to counterfeit computer software, he said people unknowingly pay the price that they pay for a genuine one. There is provision in Act No 9 of the Consumer Protection Act 2003 to safeguard consumers from unfair trade, he said.
CAA Director Consumer Affairs and Information Chandrika Thilakaratne said officers from the authority had come across many counterfeit and low quality products in the market. “We also receive a large number of complaints from the public with regard to bottled water. We found that discarded water bottles have been filled with tap water and sold as iced water mainly in the Pettah area. Several persons have been fined for selling water bottles containing insects. There have been instances where fake labels have been pasted on discarded water bottles. Even mosquitoes were found inside some sealed water bottles with expiry dates,” she said.
CAA Chairman
Wholesale traders dealing in cooking oil have been selling oil mixed with palm oil. Only 10 per cent of the cooking oil sold in the country is branded products while the rest is sold on bulk through the wholesale market. It is a big problem nabbing persons at the supply chain who contaminate cooking oil.
Referring to soft drinks’ contamination, she said: “We found mosquitoes, nails and insects inside soft bottles. Our officers also found unregistered fake cosmetic and hair dye products in the market. Most customers are ignorant of identifying counterfeit products,” she said.
Dr. Kusal Senanayaka of Glaxo Wellcome Sri Lanka said when consumers purchase fake drugs they are harmed much more than the parent company. According to the WHO definition wrongly labeled pharmaceuticals can be categorised as fake products with regard to identity and its source. He said counterfeit apply to both branded and generic products.
To discover a new drug, a company had to spend around US$900 million. A new drug for Malaria disease has been found after 30 years of experimentation. Ms. Aroma Silva, Software Assetmanagement and Compliance Manager- South East Asia new market of Microsoft Sri Lanka said several programmes have been organised in the country especially in schools with regard to cyber security. Most cybercrimes are committed by mafia gangs around the world.
Small and medium companies have been targeted by these gangs as they do not use genuine software. Around 90 million child pornography images have been used by cyber criminals. Microsoft has research companies in Singapore and USA to track down cybercrimes, he said.
Wing Commander Sanjaya Fernando, Country Security Manager at Ceylon Tobacco said as locally manufactured cigarettes are highly priced large quantities of cheaply manufactured illicit cigarettes are smuggled into the country depriving tax revenue to the country. A smuggler can earn Rs. 400 million as profit through a container full of illegally smuggled cigarettes. “We do not know who smuggles them. Last year the state lost around Rs. 2.5 million in tax revenue due to smuggling.” he said.
AmCham President Asanka Ratnayake said over the years the chamber has provided resources to create awareness among people on intellectual property rights. The chamber has also realized the value of intellectual property rights to safeguard lives and property of people. It was only through the enforcement of intellectual property rights that such matters could be addressed. From the manufacture of pharmaceuticals to motor spare parts, these items fall within the ambit of intellectual property rights. He said foreign investment could only be attracted to a country when there are laws relating to Intellectual Property rights.