On November 08, 2021, the Government of India (GoI) through the Department of Consumer Affairs, under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, amended the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities), Rules 2011 called the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Amendment Rules, 2021, to enhance the protection of Consumer Rights.
Key Amendments:
i.Rule 5 of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities), Rules 2011, which is defining the Schedule II prescribing the pack sizes of various types of commodities was omitted.
ii.Rule 6 has mandated the mentioning of the month and year in which the commodity is manufactured or pre-packed or imported. Now the words, pre-packed or imported, were omitted from the rule.
iii.Declarations of MRP: The ministry has simplified the declaration of maximum retail price (MRP) and made it mandatory for the manufacturer/packer/importer to declare the MRP in Indian currency inclusive of all taxes on the pre-packed commodities.
iv.Date of Manufacture: Under the revised rules, the declaration of date of manufacture on the pre-packed commodities was made mandatory.
v.Sale Price: A new provision has been introduced to specify the unit sale price on pre-packed commodities to allow easier comparison of the prices of the commodities at the time of purchase.
vi.Symbol of Units: To ease the declaration of quantity sold by numbers in pre-packed commodities, the earlier rule of using Symbols such as N or U for mentioning the items sold by numbers has been amended.
- Now the items sold in numbers could 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.
Note – The amendments will come into effect from 1st April 2022.
The Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 (i.e. Packaging Rules) regulate pre-packaged commodities in India and mandate certain labelling requirements prior to the sale of such commodities.
Recent Related News:
‘E-Daakhil’ portal which was launched by National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission (NCDRC) in September 2020 for Consumer Grievance Redressal (e-filing) is now operational in 15 States/UTs across India.
About Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution:
Union Minister – Piyush Goyal (Constituency – Maharashtra)
Minister of State – Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Constituency – Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh), Ashwini Kumar Choubey (Constituency – Buxar, Bihar)
