Firms sell water with 2 MRPs, face heat

MUMBAI: The legal metrology department recently waged a campaign against overcharging and dual MRP practices by high-profile corporates and business entities. The department attributed the success of the move to alert citizens who are keenly aware of their rights and are pro-actively coming forward to file complaints.
In fact, the department is receiving such a flood of requests over its helpline and WhatsApp numbers that it is not activating a Twitter handle until it can generate manpower and infrastructure to handle the many cases.
Additional director general and controller of legal metrology Amitabh Gupta said, “Consumers are fighting aggressively against injustice. Companies also, after initial resistance, are mostly willing to comply. In the past year, my department filed cases against Flipkart, Amazon, Pepsi, Coke, Monginis and LPG dealers. We have instructed Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), Board of Control for Cricket in India and Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) to curb overcharging by vendors, and they have agreed to comply. The change is slowly visible.”
“Some manufacturers actually devise two separate MRPs for a product. A bottle of water that is labelled Rs20 in general stores will be labelled Rs60 at premier locations like airports, and to top it all, the vendor will sell it for Rs100-150. The ‘M’ in MRP means maximum. How can you have two maximums? We have firmly instructed the airport authorities to stop these malpractices, and they have agreed. We have even sent notices to manufacturers Pepsi and Coke to rein in the unscrupulous practice of devising two MRPs,” said Gupta.
The department had 259 pending appeals in 2016 but by January 2017, only 15 are pending. Moreover, the Legal Metrology Organization (LMO) has voluntarily come under the Right to Public Services Act, 2011, which ensures redressal within 30 days in government offices.
However, the LMO is unable to function to its optimal capacity given shortage of infrastructure, vehicles and manpower. “There has been a manifold increase in Mumbai’s population as well as commercial enterprises and hawkers, but we have 900 staff when we require 1,400. We have requested computers and office space from the government.” The department works out of an old-world government barrack along Free Press Marg in Nariman Point but may soon shift to MTNL building at Kala Ghoda.
Not all campaigns have achieved their target, though. The LMO fought a bitter battle to enforce MRP on milk packets but vendors continue to overcharge. “But we got manufacturers to reprint packs stating that MRP includes cooling and transportation charges. Earlier, consumers would pay more out of sympathy, or believing that vendors incurred cost overheads. Now they know they can complain if overcharged,” said Gupta.