Bangladesh will observe World Consumer Rights Day on March 15, while a major portion of general public still remain unaware of their rights.
Over 70 per cent of the population in the country are not aware of consumers' rights, officials said.
To protect the rights, the government enacted the Consumers' Right Protection Act, 2009 and formed the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP).
There are consumer rights protection committees at district, upazila and union levels, aiming to aware the consumers at the grassroots level.
"The district level committees are functioning well. But the committees at the union level are not performing up to the mark, leaving most consumers in rural areas in the dark about their rights," Director General of DNCRP Md Shafiqul Islam Laskar told the FE.
The chairman of the union parishad (UP) is the head of the committee.
Mr Laskar said that they have asked the district level committees to strengthen the union level committees.
The DNCRP got an allocation of Tk 12 million only from the budget for the fiscal year (FY) 2017-18 for conducting market monitoring drive across the country, he added.
"We face some problems due to financial constraints that hampers smooth market monitoring drive at union level," he said.
DNCRP will seek more financial allocation from the government in the next fiscal, he added.
He asserted that consumers are gradually becoming aware about their rights as the numbers of complaints have been growing since the inception of DNCRP.
From the FY 2009-10 till March 7 in 2018, the DNCRP carried out a total of 9,800 monitoring drives and 37,229 business establishments faced music, he said.
The DNCRP realised over Tk 285 million in fines. Of the amount, over Tk five million (at a rate of 25 per cent) were disbursed among 3,234 complainants/consumers.
The DNCRP received a total of 13,521 complaints since 2010 till March 8, 2018.
Out of them, 12,309 were settled and 1212 are in the pipeline for disposal.
The DNCRP received a total of 6276 complaints till March 8, 2018 of the FY 2017-18 as against 6140 during the FY 2016-17.
The number of mass hearing from FY 2015-16 till January 31, 2018 was 719. It had (DNCRP) organised 2820 views exchange meetings from FY 2015-16 to January 31, 2018.
The DG of DNCRP said that they are taking preparations to observe the World Consumers Day that include rally, seminar and discussion on the significance of the day.
World Consumer Rights Day was inspired by President John F Kennedy, who sent a special message to the US Congress on 15th March 1962, in which he formally addressed the issue of consumer rights.
He was the first world leader to do so. The consumer movement first marked that date in 1983 and now uses the day every year to mobilise action on important issues and campaigns.
The day is observed to raise global awareness about consumer rights and needs and to protest against market abuses and social injustices which undermine those rights.
