The Trade, Commerce, and Food Security Ministry will amend the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) Act based on consumer survey results, the Ministry’s internal sources told the Sunday Observer yesterday. The Ministry is working to lift import barriers on some consumer commodities, including eggs to improve consumer access to these products and potentially lower prices.
Trade Commerce and Food Security Minister Nalin Fernando has decided to give the CAA more powers to regulate internal trade. This move follows the increasing number of consumer complaints about unfair trade practices and restrictive practices by traders and manufacturers of goods and services, Ministry officials said.
Last week, CAA investigators uncovered a racket of 30 private hospitals and laboratories overcharging patients for dengue antigen tests and Full Blood Count (FBC) tests. CAA Director Asela Bandara told the Sunday Observer that they took legal action against these establishments. The Courts fined 21 of them Rs. 9.4 million.
“We are processing action against the others who would have to face a penalty of up to Rs 3 million in due course for charging patients prices above the gazetted prices for the tests concerned.”
On Wednesday, the CAA cracked down on an errant trader in Kathireshan Street, Pettah, for illegally importing and selling dangerous skin whitening creams and lotions containing high levels of mercury and perfumes.
The Kuliyapitiya Magistrate remanded four suspects who assaulted eight CAA officials while they were investigating egg hoarding in the Bihalpura area of Narammala, Kurunegala. The suspects reportedly attacked the officers with blunt swords, hoe rods, egg crate pieces and machetes. The egg traders had been hoarding eggs, leading to an artificial egg shortage in the market throughout the country, the authorities said. The suspects arrived in a car with no number plate and threatened the CAA officers to stop investigating their illegal activities. Four CAA officers were treated at the Kurunegala Hospital for wounds they sustained in the attack. The CAA has informed Public Security Minister Tiran Alles of the incident and sought his intervention to prevent such occurrences in the future.
The Trade Ministry’s Internal Trade Director Division Director Glima Dahanayake said they are taking steps to ensure that businesses operate ethically and that consumers are not being taken advantage of.
She said this in response to our question whether they hadlost their grip on the consumer well-being in the country and that prices of consumer commodities, such as bakery products and eggs, do not seem to go down in price despite the Government having reduced fuel and gas prices. Dahanayake said that action is being taken at Ministry level, including amending the CAA Act.
“We decided to remove barriers to importing eggs not only because of price increase in eggs and the lack of availability of eggs in the market. The Ministry decided that if an industry cannot supply its goods and services to the consumers, the consumers must not be penalised for it,” she said.
Dahanayake said that the Ministry would like to see market prices controlled by their natural behaviour pattern of supply and demand and that consumers should stay alert to traders trying to take undue advantage of them.
“We discussed recently with the local milk powder manufacturers, and we told them that international milk powder prices have come down, and they agreed to reduce the prices by another Rs. 80,” she said.
The Trade Commerce and Food Ministry’s commitment to promoting fair trade practices and protecting consumer rights is crucial, especially in a market where businesses may try to take advantage of consumers.
She added that by giving more power to the CAA and removing certain import barriers, the Ministry aims to ensure that consumers can access goods and services at fair prices and that those businesses operate ethically.