Centre amends Packaged Commodities Rules 2011 for enhanced protection of Consumer Rights, to change from April 1, 2022

In order to make the customers more powerful during and after the purchase, the government has brought new packaging rules. The new packaging rules will come into effect from April 1, 2022. According to this rule, companies manufacturing the goods will have to write the price per unit/per kg of the goods on the packet along with the MRP.

"To safeguard interest of consumers, the Department of Consumer Affairs under Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has omitted the Rule 5 of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities), Rules 2011 defining the Schedule II prescribing the pack sizes of various types of commodities. A new provision has been introduced to indicate the unit sale price on pre packed commodities, which will allow easier comparison of the prices of the commodities at the time of purchase," Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said in a statement.

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Earlier, the month and year in which the commodity is manufactured or pre-packed or imported was required to be mentioned in the package. Representation from Industry and associations in this respect has been received to remove this ambiguity.

Now the companies making the goods will have complete freedom to determine the quantity of package items they sell in the market. Also, a major change has been made in the rules that is it will be necessary to give information about the month or manufacturing year on the imported package item. At present, only the month or date of import is required to be given on the import of package items.

"For reducing compliance burden and removing the ambiguity of declaration of date on pre packed commodities for consumers, the declaration has now been required to the month and year in which the commodity is manufactured for the pre packed commodities," the statement said.

The provisions of declarations of MRP have been simplified by removing illustration and providing for making the mandatory declaration of MRP in Indian currency inclusive of all taxes. This has allowed the manufacturer/packer/importer to declare the MRP on the pre packed commodities in a simplified manner.

Rules for declaring the commodities sold in pre packed commodities in numbers have been eased out for reducing the compliance burden for manufacturer /importer/packer.

Earlier such declarations could be denoted as ‘N’ or ‘U’ only. Now the quantities can be expressed in terms of the number or unit or piece or pair or set or such other word which represents the quantity in the package. This will remove the ambiguity of declaration of quantity sold by number in pre packed commodities, as per the information provided by Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

Rules applicable to 19 items

The government has made changes in the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities), Rules 2011. Under this, 19 items like milk, tea, biscuits, edible oil, flour, bottled water and drinks, baby food, pulses, cereals, cement bags, bread and detergent will come.

Advantage

The quality of a product can be determined from its manufacturing date, so now it will be necessary to write the manufacturing date on the imported product. Two major changes in the new rules are related to the quantity and unit price of the goods in a packet. Customers will now have the right to know how much money they have to pay for per gram of commodities.