Parliament yesterday passed the Consumer Rights Protection Bill 2009 aimed at protecting consumers' rights by way of preventing cheating at weight, price and quality of what the consumers buy.
Commerce Minister Lt Col (retd) Faruk Khan piloted the bill that was passed by voice vote.
In the objective part of the Bill it is stated that due to the absence of a law the consumers have been "harassed and cheated" for a long time.
The new law bans the sale at high price, adulteration and faking products, forgery in weighing goods, selling date-expired items and fraudulence with advertisement.
"These are all serious crimes," it is stated in the strict law that also spells out fit punishment for such offences.
The punishment ranges from one year to three years' imprisonment and minimum Tk 50,000 to Tk 200,000 as fines.
A consumer can file complaint through e-mail, fax or other sources to the director general concerned regarding such crimes.
Joynal Abedin (Feni-2), Jafrul Islam Chowdhury (Chittagong-15), AHM Hamidur Rahman Azad (Cox's Bazar-2) and Syeda Ashifa Ashrafi Papia (Women seat-41) took part in discussion on the Bill.
The parliament also passed another bill titled 'The Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) (Amendment) Bill 2009.' The BTTB has already been transformed into a public limited company under a changed nomenclature Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL).
Post and Telecommunications Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju moved the bill, also passed by voice vote.
Joynal Abedin (Feni-2), Jafrul Islam Chowdhury (Chittagong-15), Muhammad Mosharraf Hossain (Feni-3), AHM Hamidur Rahman Azad (Cox's Bazar-2) and Syeda Ashifa Ashrafi Papia (Women seat-41) took part in the discussion.