Centre trying to set up 750 price monitoring centres by March 31, 2023

Singh, during a day-long workshop in Guwahati, said that the Centre intends to achieve the target of having 750 price monitoring centres by March 31, 2023 for which financial support will be assured.

The Secretary said that through the Price Monitoring Division, the Centre is making all efforts to control prices of essential commodities thereby, keeping check over inflation.

The Department of Consumer Affairs regularly generates data about price and has the system of collecting prices of 22 essential food commodities in the country.

The workshop was organised in association with government of Assam to address the issues concerning consumer protection in the northeastern states.

The Secretary during his inaugural address informed how the Department, National Commission, State Commissions and District Commissions and the whole ecosystem in terms of quality, quantity, standards, testing and benchmarks through BIS, NTH, Legal Metrology and National Consumer Helpline are working together towards protection of consumer interests.

He further highlighted the role of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) as the National Standards Body of India, in developing Indian Standards and implementation of voluntary and mandatory standards such as Quality Control Orders and how through Legal Metrology and Weights and Measures consumers are assured that what is being offered, the quantity being offered is exactly same as claimed on the product.

Speaking about the domain of consumer protection he underlined that infrastructure of commissions, human resource in consumer commissions and use of technology are three verticals through which the whole ecosystem of consumer protection is made robust and responsible.

It was assured that Department will provide its complete support to all states for having necessary infrastructure for effective functioning of consumer commissions as per the policy which states that 50 per cent will be funded by the state government and 50 per cent will be funded by the Central government and requested all the representative of the state government to provide its Utilisation Certificates of previous year, if pending, without which the Centre cannot release the funds for the subsequent year.