The number of complaints against consumer rights violations has marked a sharp rise in recent times, thanks to the growing public awareness.
The data available with the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) shows written complaints grew 46 per cent in the last fiscal year (FY).
Consumers lodged 9,019 complaints against businesses like restaurants, retail chain shops, as well as e-commerce and telecom service providers in FY 2017-18.
The figure was 6,140 in the previous fiscal year.
The directorate also received 3,157 complaints against various business entities till October 25 of the current fiscal, the data revealed.
When asked, DNCRP director general Md Shafiqul Islam Laskar said the figure indicated increased awareness among consumers.
"This doesn't mean consumer rights situation has worsened in the country, but their awareness level has increased," he added.
"Consequently, more and more consumers are banking on us to protect their rights," Mr Laskar told the FE.
Actually, consumers had no or limited scope to lodge complaints before the directorate came to light.
People have been filing objections with the government agency since 2014 following the enactment of the Consumer Rights Protection Act 2009.
"At the onset of the DNCRP, few people knew about the scope to apprise their grievances," Mr Laskar said.
His department was also devoid of required facilities like human resources in its infancy.
"In addition to our regular duties, we also hold multiple programmes aiming to create awareness about consumer rights among people," he mentioned.
Mr Laskar said, "This year, we're organising a national essay competition about the issue with intent to create awareness among students.
The FE correspondent talked to some consumers during recent visits to the DNCRP headquarters in the capital.
Dhaka University student Atiqur Rahman was among them.
He had to pay more on two units of bottled soft drinks than that of the maximum retail price (MRP) at a restaurant in Jhigatola area.
"I came to the DNCRP as an official concerned informed me through a letter to convey my grievances after I had complained a week ago," Mr Rahman said.
He learned about such a government service through several posts on the social network Facebook regarding consumer rights protection.
Like Mr Rahman, many now come to the directorate to settle their cases.
Any customer, if cheated by business by any means, can avail the service providing required evidence.
Once a case is positively settled, the complainant gets one fourth of the amount fined against an entity.
Some 1,934 complainants received Tk 3.97 million in compensation in FY '18, up from Tk 1.55 million in the corresponding period of last fiscal.
According to the data, the number of DNCRP drives against the breach of consumer rights has also risen sharply.
The DNCRP fined 13,652 businesses in FY '18, against 10,729 in the previous fiscal year.
The accumulated amount of penalty fixed during the drives almost doubled in the last fiscal to Tk 141.47 million from Tk 68.7 million in the preceding FY.
The most common complaints include overpricing, sale of adulterated or expired goods, information gap between adverts and real products, and poor delivery of goods.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) general secretary Advocate Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan hailed the growing number of complaints filed with the state agency.
"We welcome the rate of response from consumers. But many of them are yet to know about the grievance redress system being implemented successfully."
Mr Bhuiyan also praised the DNCRP for involving civil platforms like the CAB in its activities to make people aware about their rights.
"We (CAB) launched a call centre to help consumers get necessary support and an online newspaper with the financial support from the DNCRP," he told the FE.
Still, there is a need for promoting consumer rights protection issues, as a good number of people have no idea that they can protect their own rights.
