The report further says that some 54 percent of the total consumers interviewed during the survey in the valley believe that concerned government authorities are not doing justice to their jobs by not carrying out regular market inspections and attribute their apathy for the mess seen in the food market of late.
Department of Commerce (DoC) had conducted a survey recently covering 1,080 consumers in the Valley and its findings raise serious question over the competence of DoC, which is primarily responsible for safeguarding consumers´ interests and upholding their rights.
For instance, more than half of consumers surveyed said that government has grossly ignored consumer rights and 73 percent of them were discontent with the present institutional arrangements for protecting consumers´ rights. About one-fifth of consumers even blamed the consumer rights organizations of not playing effective role in protecting the fundamental rights of consumers.
The survey also revealed that some 70 percent of consumers are unaware of their own rights and more than 22 percent of them did not know that they could complain to the government authorities in case traders cheated them.
However, the report acknowledges that more and more consumers these days look for basic information like label of products before purchasing them.
The report based on first ever consumer survey also shows that consumers in general are not satisfied with standard of public services like public transportation, communication, drinking water, cooking gas, education and availability of goods.
Despite the growth in the number of department stores, the report says, well over 52 percent Kathmanduites purchase commodities from local grocery and retail outlets.
According to the report, only 13.55 percent of consumers regularly purchase goods from departmental stores.
Based on the result of the survey, the department is adopting new measures to make its market inspection more effective, said Anil Thakur, director general of DoC. According to Thakur, the department has also proposed the formation of Research and Development Unit to conduct consumer survey more frequently and regularly in coming days.
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