Fed up with hoarding, profiteering, Govt. constitutes committee to finds ways to curb it

Fed up with hoarding, profiteering, Govt. constitutes committee to finds ways to curb it Nitesh Sangral JAMMU, Aug 13: With increased complaints of manufacturers and traders inflating Maximum Retail Price (MRP) of packaged commodities in absence of any central and state law to regulate them, state government has constituted a Working Group (WG) to formulate rules to curb hoarding and profiteering in J&K. Officials said that State Consumer Protection Council headed by Minister for CAPD Qamar Ali Akhoon has constituted a WG headed by MLC, Ravinder Sharma to examine the issues of fixation of MRP of consumer goods and drugs sold in the state. At present, it is the manufacturers who determine and mark MRP which include Cost of Production, Distribution and Margin of Profit at different levels up to the retail point in the state. How this is fixed nobody knows. A senior officer from Legal Meteorology said that in the rest of the India the focus in the market places may have gradually shifted from customer satisfaction to customer. “In our state, the focus of most of our business community is how to swoop on the customers and snatch their hard earned money through profiteering”, official said on condition of anonymity. Though there are several acts such as Essential Commodities Act, Drug Control order, Central Excise Act and and Hoarding and Profiteering Ordinance operational, but they deal with the quality of the products sold in the market, but not with the prices of the goods. “Profiteering has plagued our business environment. The way business is practiced in our state cuffs largely of dishonesty and can easily be described as robbery in broad day light. Our business men always look for higher return on investment at any cost. To achieve this goal most of them resort to unethical, unlawful and unjustified practices of making profits”, said Nadeem Qadri, a social and environmental activist. “We are studying feasibility or bringing amendments for incorporating certain new provision to cover the issue of MRP in the above acts and detailed meeting are being held with consumer groups, lawyers and trader bodies”, said MLC Ravinder Sharma, who heads the group. Sharma said that there is almost consensus to further strengthen the hoarding and profiteering ordinance by adding new provision to tackle the menace of printing of inflated MRP on the consumer goods.