Consumer Bulletin

Vo lu me – 4 , I s s ue – 1 2

Sta te Consumer He lp l i ne Knowledge Resource Management Por t a l

(SCHKRMP)

D e c e mbe r ’ 2 0 1 5

Month ly E-Bu l le t i n o f S t a t e Consumer He lp l i ne Knowledge Resource

Management Por t a l (SCHKRMP) , Cen t re o f Consumer S tud i es , I nd i an

I ns t i t u te o f Pub l i c Admin i s t ra t ion ( I IPA) , New De lh i

Editor-in-Chief Associate Editor Editor Designer & Research

Prof. Suresh Misra Shri. G.N. Sreekumaran Shri S. K. Virmani Shashi

( Project Director ) ( Consultant ) ( Project Manager ) ( Research Officer )

National Consumer Day 2015

Theme: “Safe & Healthy Food: Combating Food Adulteration”

The Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India observed the National Consumer Day 2015 on 22nd December, 2015 in Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on the theme “ Safe and Healthy Food: Combating Food Adulteration. The event was presided over by Shri Ram Vilas Paswan, Hon’ble Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. Key note address was delivered by Justice D.K.Jain, President, Na-tional Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. Shri Ashish Bahuguna, Chairman, Food safety and Standards Authority of India delivered the theme address. Welcome address was given by Shri C. Viswa-nath, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs. On the occasion, the Hon’ble Minister of Consumer Af-fairs, Food and Public Distribution gave away cash prizes to the winners of the poster making competition on the theme of consumer awareness organized by the Department among school children of Delhi. Publications— Consumer handbook in Hindi titled “ Upbhokta Margdarshika”, “Green Consumerism: A Manual for Home Makers”, “Toys and Safety Regulations”, “National Consumer Helpline: A Ready Reckon-er”, and “Financial Services and Consumers”, were also released during the event, which are useful for the consumers. A calendar containing the paintings of the school children was also released on the occasion.

Banks to charge SMS alert fee on actual usage basis

Reserve Bank of India vide their order No. RBI/2013-14/381,DBOD.NO. Dir.BC.67/13.10.00/2013-14 dtd. 26/11/2013

have directed all banks to ensure that the charges for SMS alerts are charged to the consumers on actual usage basis.

Banks are required to send SMS alerts to the consumers for all transactions irrespective of the amounts. So as to help

consumers in fraud mitigation.

NEW DELHI : The Delhi high court has directed the Delhi government-run Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences to provide free treatment to 27-year-old Hanuman, a patient of Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAG). The pa-tient has filed a writ petition in the high court, seeking directions against the institute to provide him free treatment without insisting upon the production of National Food Security Card as proof of his economic background. Before directing the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences to provide the pa-tient free treatment, the high court had asked the institute, Union health ministry and R.M.L. Hospital to file their responses to the petition. “Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, while disposing of the writ petition, has directed the ILBS to provide free treat-ment to the patient. The court also directed area SDM to issue income certificate to Hanuman in regard to his EWS (economically weaker section) status and on production thereof, the institute shall provide him free treatment,” said advocate Ashok Agarwal, who filed the petition on behalf of Hanuman. The patient resides in a Badli slum with his family — wife, three-year-old son and one-year-old daughter. He used to earn be-tween Rs 100 and Rs 150 per day by helping with stitching at a shop. On April 16, 2014 he was found to be suffering from the Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg) disease. On August 21 this year, the petitioner approached Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital for treatment. The hospital re-ferred him to the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences in Vasant Kunj for further treatment and also recom-mended complete check-up of his family members. The petitioner thereafter, on September 7, approached the institute for treatment. However, the institute refused to provide him free treatment and asked him to pay for the treatment. According to Mr Agarwal, Hanuman produced a copy of his father’s BPL card (original deposited with the food and supplies department, Delhi) and made a request to provide him free treatment as he was unable to pay any amount and moreover, offered to give a self-declaration to the director of the institute that his family income from all sources was less than Rs 1 lakh per annum. However, the institute arbitrarily and erroneous-ly declined to provide him free treatment, the advocate said. “The denial of free treatment to the poor patient, Hanuman, by the ILBS is a violation of fundamental and constitutional rights to life and health of the petitioner, as guaranteed to him by the Constitution of India,” added Mr Agarwal.

Every 5th Food Sample Found Adulterated, Misbranded: Report {FINANCIAL CHRONICLE, 7 Dec 2015 }

NEW DELHI: One out of every five samples of food items tested by public food safety labs in the country has been found "adulterated and misbrand-ed", with maximum in Uttar Pradesh followed by Punjab and Madhya Pra-desh. Over Rs. 10.93 crore penalty has been imposed in 2,795 cases, while cul-prits have been convicted in 1,402 cases so far this year, according to the testing report of public laboratories released by the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). As per the report compiled by the state governments, food safety labs re-ceived 83,265 samples, of which 74,010 were tested till November 24 of 2015. Out of the tested samples, the labs found 14,599 samples were "adulterated and misbranded", the data showed. A maximum 4,119 samples were found adulterated and misbranded in Uttar Pradesh, followed by Punjab

News from Media

Delhi HC orders free treatment for Hepatitis B patient {The Asian Age ,29 Nov 2015 }

MUMBAI: Advertising industry watchdog ASCI has upheld complaints against

54 campaigns for misleading advertisements during September, including those of Bharti Airtel and Flipkart.5 Customer Complaints Council (CCC) of Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) upheld 13 complaints of misleading advertisements from personal and healthcare category, seven in telecom and broadband category and six in ecommerce category during the month.5 The CCC has upheld five complaints against Bharti Airtel, in which four was for promotions of its 4G services and one was for broadband service.5 “The claim offer of, ‘Get the same data benefits as your 3G pack and enjoy superfast 4G speeds at no extra cost; Free 4G Upgrade’ was found misleading by omission of a disclaimer qualifying that the benefits of-fered under retail plans are not available to users under corporate plans,” ASCI said in its order. While ecommerce firm flipKart was also pulled up for two its calims by ASCI.5 Flipkart had on its website claimed the MRP of Tek-Tron velroc safety outdoor shoes as Rs. 599, while ac-tual printed MRP on the product was Rs. 499 and offered on discounted price. “This distorts facts and is therefore misleading the consumers as to actual discount being offered,” CCC added.

Muthoot warns clients against fraudsters

{Financial Chronicle, 10 Dec 2015}

Individuals and unidentified organisations were trying to dupe cus-tomers for approval of gold loans Chennai : Gold loan company Muthoot Finance has cautioned custom-ers against fraudsters who cheat clients by posing as company repre-sentatives Muthoot Finance has come across a few instances in Delhi, Kerala and TN in which individuals and unidentified organisations were trying to dupe customers for approval of gold loans. In a recent instance, an unidentified organisation has fraudulently attempted to lure customers by sending bogus loan approval letters to unsuspecting people. The customers are further instructed to submit their de-tails to a dubious representative of Muthoot Finance. “We are concerned about the harmful impact of such fraudulent practices. The company is taking appropriate legal action to curb fraudulent claims,” said Ranjit Singh, GM, operations, Muthoot Finance.

(1,458), Madhya Pradesh (1,412), Gujarat (1,243), Maharashtra (1,162) and Tamil Nadu (1,047). The penalty of Rs. 10.93 crore has been imposed in 2,795 cases, and maximum fine of Rs. 5.98 crore was imposed for cases reported in Uttar Pradesh. As many as 2,676 criminal cases and 7,860 civil suits were registered, of which convictions were reported in 1,402 cases, the report added. Issues related to quality of food and FSSAI came into the limelight after it imposed the ban on Maggi in June this year, which was later lifted by the Bombay High Court. In August this year, the Supreme Court junked the FSSAI's advisory that asked manufacturers to get clear-ance for products even if the ingredients were already approved or deemed safe. The government is also mulling Rs. 1,750-crore proposal to strengthen central food regulator FSSAI as well as state bodies.

ASCI upholds complaints against Airtel, HDFC, Flipkart {BUSINESS LINE , 15 Dec 2015 }

Now, get 12 types of certificates online

{The Times of India, 01 Dec 2015 }

New Delhi : The e-District project that will allow residents to apply for 12 types of certificates through a sim-plified process and access 13 services online was launched on Monday.

New Delhi : From April 1, 2016, Delhiites will be able to use a common mobility card for travelling in public transport like Metro and buses. As a precursor to this, electronic ticketing will be made available in all DTC and cluster buses. The government is starting a trial on a single route for the time being and said that all buses will have e-ticketing facilities by April. “From January 6, we will start a trial on bus number 901 which operates between Mangolpuri to Kamala Market. Subsequently , it will be introduced in other buses as well,“ said transport minister Gopal Rai. The cards will be like the ones being used in Delhi Metro at pre-sent and will make travelling buses and Metro cashless. Sources said that the cards will be available at multiple locations, including Metro stations, and the government may authorize shops to store them as well, in ways similar for SIM cards. “The e-ticketing machines will also generate date and time of travel, along with destination, which will help us monitor movement of buses as well,“ said Rai.

CM Arvind Kejriwal, who inaugurated the project, said it “will bring down timelines for delivery of certificate services, besides eliminating intermediaries and ensuring checks against fake papers“. Citizens can apply on edistrict.delhigovt.nic.in for certificates from the revenue department.

The status can be tracked online and digitally signed certificates will be made available can be downloaded and printed. The revenue department has also inter-linked the databases of departments which issue driving licence, voter ID, Aadhaar, PAN card, etc. . “Issuance of income certificates and creamy layer status for OBC certificates will be based on self-declaration. The documentation has also been simplified to bring down verification time,“ said a govern-ment official.

Packaged food should carry expiry date: Consumer body { THE TIMES OF INDIA, 23 DEC 2015 }

Common card for Metro and buses { TIMES OF INDIA,22 DEC 2015 }

New Delhi :Consider Junking ‘Best Before Date’, Food Regulator Told The country's apex consumer commission is in favour of changing the la-belling norm of packaged food items and also wants the labelling to be simple for consumers to understand so that they can make an informed choice. To end any confusion in the minds of consumers, chief of the Na-tional Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has asked the food regulator to see whether the tag of “best before“ on products can be replaced with information on “expiry date“. While speaking at the consumer awareness day on Tuesday , Food Safety and Standards Regulatory Authority of India (FSSAI) chairman Ashish Bahuguna said consumers get influ-enced by “dazzling“ advertisements and rarely look at the labels while buying products, except checking their expiry date. “Even educated consumers do not read the label while purchasing food items...There is no awareness to check contents of the label.“ Supporting the need to end confusion on issues to do with labelling, NCDRC president Justice D K Jain said safe and healthy food is a constitutional mandate and there have to be stringent provisions to check food adulteration. He cited how importers of packaged food items put a new barcode on the imported products. On the issue of many products mentioning the ‘best before use’ tag, Jain said, “What does it mean? Is it fit for human consumption after six months? We don’t know. Consumers are confused. Why not have only ‘expiry date’ on label?” he asked. Justice Jain also highlighted how big companies are now focusing more on rural areas for greater sales and

The government has made it mandatory to quote PAN (permanent ac-count number) for all transactions in excess of Rs.2 lakh, regardless of the mode of payment, to curb black money. The new rule, effective from January 1, will cover purchases of all goods or services, such as say gold jewellery or furniture, Revenue Secretary, Hasmukh Adhia told reporters. This includes all payments made through cash, cheques or debit or credit cards. In the case of immovable property, where quoting PAN is currently required for transactions of Rs.5 lakh, the government has decided to raise the monetary limits to Rs.10 lakh. It raised the monetary limit to Rs.50,000 from Rs.25,000 in the case of hotel or restaurant bills paid at any one time, and for bills on account of overseas travel. The limit is being raised to Rs.1 lakh from Rs.50,000 for purchase or sale of shares of an unlisted company. Opening of a no-frills bank account, such as a Jan Dhan account, will not require PAN, he said. Other than that, the requirement of PAN applies to opening of all bank accounts including the co-operative banks. Those who do not hold PAN would have to fill a form and furnish any one of a specified list of documents to establish their identity, according to press statement. One of the recommendations of the Special Investigation Team on black money was to make PAN compul-sory for all sales and purchases of goods and services above one lakh. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had accepted this recommendation and announced in his Budget speech earlier this year that it will be noti-fied. The government hopes to reduce the limit to Rs.1 lakh eventually and then make quoting PAN manda-tory for all cash transactions. The pay panel has “strongly“ recommended introduction of a health insurance scheme for Central employees and pensioners and has taken a grim view of the “tardiness“ in implementing the plan, recommended earlier too. Earlier pay commissions and other committees too recommended a change in the open-ended healthcare system for central government employees, but there has been no movement.

Transactions above Rs. 2 lakh need PAN from January 1 to curb black money {THE HINDU , 16 Dec 2015 }

के्रडिट कािड : न्यनूतम भगुतान महंगा सौदा {HINDUSTAN, 30 DECEMBER 2015} नई दिल्ली : के्रडिट कािड ने हर तरह की खरीिारी को ज्यािा आसान बना दिया है। ऐसे में लोग बजट का ध्यान रख ेबगरै इसका खूब इस्तमेाल करत ेहैं और बाि में ऊंचा बबल भगुतान परेशानी का सबब बन जाता है। के्रडिट कािड कंपननयां हर महीने कुल बकाए की बजाए न्यनूतम राशश चकुाने का भी विकल्प िेती हैं। इससे तत्काल फायिा जरूर शमलता है लेककन के्रडिट स्कोर घटने के बाि में कजड शमलना मशु्ककल हो सकता है। क्या है न्यनूतम राशश : आपके के्रडिट कािड पर 30 हजार रुपये का बबल बकाया है तो कंपननयां कुल राशश चुकाने की जगह उसपर एक माह का ब्याज और अन्य जरूरी शलु्क सदहत छोटी राशश चकुाने का विकल्प िेती हैं। यह राशश कुल बकाए का पांच फीसिी से भी कम होती है। इसे चुकाना आसान होता है लेककन कुल राशश पर हर माह ब्याज महंगा पड़ता है। के्रडिट सीमा से कम करें खर्ड - इससे खचड करने की एक सीमा तय होती है जो के्रडिट कािड जारी करत ेही आपको बता दिया जाता है। हर बार आपका खचड के्रडिट सीमा तक पहंुच जाता है बैंक और के्रडिट रेदटगं एजेंशसयां इसपर नजर रखती हैं। कुछ विशषे मामलों में के्रडिट सीमा से अधिक खचड की भी सवुििा शमलती है लेककन उसका शलु्क महंगा पड़ता है।

are depending more on advertisements to “exploit” the new market. He also pointed out how the rural mar-ket is flooded with duplicate products often with telltale wrong spellings.

S ta t e Co ns u me r He l p l in e K now l edg e

R eso u rce Ma na g eme nt Po r t a l ( SC HKR MP)

R oo m N o . – 7

Ind ia n Ins t i t ut e o f P u b l i c Ad m inis t ra t i o n

( I I P A)

I . P . Es ta t e , R ing R oad ,

N ew De lh i - 1 1 0002

P ho ne - ( 01 1) -2 3 705 05 4 /5 5

Fa x - ( 01 1 ) - 23 70505 4

E - Ma i l ID - s chkrm p . i ip a@g ma i l . c om

The Department of Consumer Affairs, Gov-ernment of India in partnership with the Cen-tre for Consumer Studies, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi has set up a National Nodal Agency known as the State Consumer Helpline Knowledge Re-s o u r c e M a n a g e m e n t P o r t a l (SCHKRMP).

The Knowledge Resource Management Portal will coordinate and monitor the activities of State Consume Helpline’s, (SCH) provide so-lutions and advisory services to these help-lines, maintain knowledge and database, build capacity of the SCH’s personnel and provide for integration and convergence.

W E ’RE ON THE WEB !

http://consumereducation.in/

http://consumeradvice.in/

ANDHRA PRADESH HARYANA NAGALAND UTTAR PRADESH

1800-425-0082 1800 -180– 2087 1800-345-3701 1800-1800-300

1800-425-2977 HIMACHAL PRADESH ODISHA WEST BANGAL

ARUNACHAL PRADESH 1800 -180– 8026 1800-345-6724 1800-345-2808

1800-345-3601 KARNATAKA 1800-345-6760 PUDUCHERRY

ASSAM 1800-425-9339 0674-2351990 /

2350209

1800-425-1082

1800-345-3611 KERALA RAJASTHAN 1800-425-1083

BIHAR 1800-425-1550 1800 -180- 6030 1800-425-1084

1800 -345- 6188 MADHYA PRADESH SIKKIM 1800-425-1085

CHHATTISGARH 0755-2559778 / 155343 1800-345-3209 MANIPUR

1800 -233 -3663 MAHARASHTRA 1800-345-3236 1800-345-3821

GUJARAT 1800-2222-62 TAMIL NADU 0385-2443924

1800-233-0222 MIZORAM 044-28592828 TRIPURA

079-27489945 / 46 1800 -231 –1792 1800-345-3665

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ज्यादा के्रडिट कािड सही नहीं—बैंक या वित्तीय कंपननया ंके्रडिट कािड बेहि आसानी से जारी कर िेती हैं। ऐसे में लोग एक से ज्यािा के्रडिट कािड ले लेत ेहैं। साथ ही एक का बबल भगुतान िसूरे के्रडिट कािड से करत ेहैं। ऐसे में भी के्रडिट स्कोर घटता है। के्रडिट ररकॉिड एजेंशसयां इसे वित्तीय मशु्ककल में फंसने के तौर पर िेखती हैं। नकद ननकासी भी सस्ती नहीं - िबेबट कािड की तरह के्रडिट कािड से भी एटीएम से नकि राशश ननकालने की सवुििा होती है। यह कुल के्रडिट सीमा की सामान्यत : एक नतहाई होती है। इसपर 40 से 50 दिन तक ब्याज मकु्त खचड की सवुििा होती है। लेककन नकि ननकासी के मामले में उसी दिन से सबंधंित राशश पर ब्याज लगना शरुू हो जाता है। कंपननयां 36 फीसिी तक सालाना ब्याज िसलूती हैं। नकि ननकासी को भी खराब वित्तीय श्स्थनत के रूप में िेखा जाता है। क्या है के्रडिट स्कोर - के्रडिट कािड का आकलन 300 से 900 अकंों के बीच ककया जाता है। 700 से अधिक स्कोर रहने पर कजड शमलना आसान हो जाता है। समय पर कजड की माशसक ककस्त (ईएमआई) और के्रडिट कािड का बबल चुकाने से के्रडिट स्कोर बढ़ता है।