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Advertisements cannot serve consumer-cause

Kashmir Times. Dated: 3/15/2017 11:46:44 PM

Dear Editor,
It refers to newspaper-advertisements given under Jago-Grahak-Jago series by Department of Consumer Affairs (Government of India) on 08.03.2017 to commemorate International Women Day, advising women to buy products rightly measured and weighed. But it is an era of selling pre-packed commodities with weight, price and other details printed on these. The advertisement also says that rules and acts related to weight and measures are for consumer-benefit. But it is absolutely wrong in presence of existing unduly liberal provisions allowing manufacturers to pack packaged commodities in haphazard units, just for benefit of manufacturers to befool consumers through gimmicks in packing.
If Department is really sincere for consumer-benefit, it should take immediate steps to make appropriate changes in Packaged Commodities Act to make it compulsory to pack all packaged commodities only in packs of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 gms or kgs or millilitres or litres. Goods packed by numbers should likewise be only in packs of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000 and similar multiples of 1000 abolishing packing by dozens etc. There is no sense in allow packing at gaps of just 5 gms like even in 95 gms. Systematic packing formula in metric units allows packing-units with next unit being almost double the previous unit with metric-system requiring units like 1, 2, 5, 10......and so on.
Amul once reduced pouch-price of cow-milk to rupees twenty but at the same time also reducing contents to 400-mililitres from earlier 500-mililitres thereby hiking net MRP by about 22-percent. Consumers normally do not care to look into nearing pack-sizes like 400 and 500 units. Advertisement about Amul cow-milk highlighted MRP of rupees 20 prominently, but keeping a small font for the pack-size. It is noteworthy that Mother-Dairy is still marketing cow-milk at rupees twenty per 500-mililitre pouch. Likewise cough-lozenges are at times sold eight per strip instead of normal ten, because consumers judge the price per strip overlooking that the strip has just eight lozenges rather than normal ten. There is no sense in allowing ghee to be marketed in 900-mililtres packs rather than one-litre pack.
—Subhash Chandra Agrawal,
1775 Kucha Lattushah
Dariba, Chandni Chowk Delhi