


It was about 12-18 months back that India was going through a slow down/ recession.
All sectors of the industry, Airlines, Telecom, Manufacturing, and Exports etc approached the govt for relief, and they all got----naturally...
It was time for lobbies to get into action and also for netas and babudom to make a bit of pocket money. Why not-consumer is NOT the king.
During the slow down period, some companies came up with a unique idea of making money, making a fool of us and they succeeded in doing both.
Under the weights and measures (packaged commodities) act, company /manufacturer has to declare the STANDARD net weight of the content on the pack. But, some genius came up with a profitable idea.
Instead of packing the standard wt in the packs, what they did was to reduce the content to NON STANDARD wt and give a declaration to that effect on the pack, which reads as follows.;
“NON STANDARD SIZE UNDER THE STANDARDS OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES (packaged commodities) RULES 1977.
The above declaration justified REDUCING the wt and selling non standard wt.
Britannia Marie.Wt reduced to 166gms.PKD-23/05/10-LOT NO 23394
Parle Kreams .Wt reduced to 80gms.Pack PKD-5/10-BATCH PN 5
HIPPO. Wt reduced to 85 gms- PKD-17/04/10-LOT-DE107220.
Why have an act on standard packing if it can be beaten up by just a declaration?
One might need a magnifying glass to read the non std declaration.
The list of products is too long to be covered here.
In the mean time, Companies reduce the wt, increase the price and declare bumper profits;
Govt gets its revenue-Companies make bumper profits-We get lower wt non STD pack at a higher price-Inflation touched double digit-Our pockets have a bigger hole.
Who said me, the consumer is the king?----I AM AN IDIOT
This, perhaps, could be the biggest scam in the packaged food/related industry
May be you can check the products you buy to see if you are a KING/QUEEN?
PAPPU and LALLI are still awaiting ROTI-KAPADA-MAKAAN.
let us CHANGE INDIA for INDIA OF TOMORROW.
posted 21/06/10, b k chowla