Amended rule will be enforced from July this year

Now in all the packaged commodities six mandatory information shall have to be displayed more prominently atleast at the 40 percent area of the packet, except top and bottom, so that these are easily readable by consumers. Packaged commodities rules have been amended by Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution for this purpose. Chairing the meeting of Bureau of Indian Standards at Mussoorie yesterday evening, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan directed the officials of his Ministry to ensure enforcement of the amended rule from July this year positively.

According to the amendment, name of manufacture/packager/ importer, net quantity of product, manufacturing date, retail sale price and consumer care contacts shall have to be displayed in a panel of 40% of the area of the packet in readable font size. Monitoring cell will be setup to ensure strict compliance of new provision.

Shri Paswan said 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. Shri Paswan expressed the hope that Consumer Protection Act, which has many unique features to safeguard interests of consumers, will be passed by the Parliament in the second part of the budget session

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. He further mentioned that BIS has taken various initiatives under ‘Make in India’ for standard formulation which includes items relating to renewable energy, bio-fuel, auto components, electric machinery and construction etc. BIS is also contribution to ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ by formulating new standards on solid and plastic wastes management, water and waste water supply management.

He also stated that he was happy to note that the time taken for granting of registration has been reduced to half i.e 20 days. In about 95 percent of the cases, BIS is able to formulate standards within specified time norms, as indicated in Citizen Charter.