Year-end-review of the Department of Consumer Affairs 2022

   Year-end-review of the Department of Consumer Affairs 2022

Why in News?

Recently, the year-end-review of the Department of Consumer Affairs for the year 2022 was released.

• Department of consumer affairs comes under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution 

Achievements of the Department in the Review Report:

1. Consumer Protection Act, 2019: Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022 were notified under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019
2. Management System Certification: Bureau of India Standards BIS operates 20 Management Systems Certification Schemes, in 2021-22 & 2 new schemes also launched i.e., Occupational Health & Safety Management System and Energy Management System.
3. Price Stabilization Fund (PSF):

• It is a central sector scheme for providing working capital and other expenses for Agri-horticultural commodities.
• During 2022, 12.83 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) of pulses has been Transferred from Price Support Scheme (PSS) to PSF & has been Procured/Import under PSF.

4. Legal Metrology (packed commodity) Rules, 2011: Amendment to Rules:

• The electronic products industries were allowed to declare certain mandatory declarations in the digital form through the QR Code for a period of 1 year, if not declared in the package itself.
• The permission enables technology use in this digital era to declare the mandatory declaration through the QR Code which can be scanned to view the declarations.

5. Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY): During 2022, Rs. 35.59 crore were released to States/Union Territories as reimbursement for expenditure on intra-State movement & handling, fair price shop dealer's margin for distribution of pulses under PMGKAY and Atma Nirbhar Bharat Scheme.
6. Consumer Awareness: DoCA has launched “Jagriti” to strengthen the campaign titled “Jago Grahak Jago” to strengthen top-of-mind awareness with all the consumers.
7. Scheme for strengthening of Price Monitoring Mechanism:

• During the year, 57 price reporting centres were added. 
• Number of price reporting centers increased from 122 on 1st January 2021 to 179 till December 2022.

[Price Monitor Cell monitors wholesale and retail prices of 22 essential commodities including Rice, Wheat, Atta, Gram Dal etc. based on data collected from markets spread across the country.]

8. Consumer Protection: The World Consumer Rights Day was celebrated on 15th March 2022 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. This year’s theme was “Fair Digital Finance”.
9. Settlement of cases through National Lok Adalat: National Legal Service Authority (NALSA) along with other Legal Service institutions conducts Lok Adalats.

• DoCA wrote to all State/UT Govts. for referring pending consumer cases to be taken up through National Lok Adalat. Hence, 5,930 cases were settled on a single day on 12th December, 2022 through Lok Adalat across the Country.

E-Filing: A Consumer Commission online application portal named “edaakhil.nic.in” has been developed to facilitate the consumers/advocates to file the consumer complaint online through the e-Daakhil portal from home or anywhere at their own comfort.

 

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