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| Business |
| Parliament passes consumer law |
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by
Joseph Langa, 05 August 2003
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17:46:47
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Parliament on Monday finally passed the long awaited consumer protection bill which aims at stopping the exploitation of consumers in the country.
The bill, which was introduced in the House during the last sitting, seeks to introduce legislation that will clearly lay down the rights of consumers and give government and other stakeholders the mandate to protect consumers.
Deputy Commerce Minister Tarcisio Yetala said when he introduced the bill during the last meeting of parliament the bill is important if government is to succeed in coming up with interventions to protect the rights of consumers in the country.
He said initiatives like the appointment of a price monitoring committee failed to tick because of lack of consumer laws.
“Previous government interventions have largely been ineffective due to lack of comprehensive and definitive consumer legislation which would make provision for coordinating mechanism between various interest groups in consumer issues,” he said.
According to the bill, some of the consumer rights that it intends to protect include the protection of the consumer economic interest, health and safety in the consumption of technology, goods and services.
The bill also advocates for consumer rights to fair and nondiscriminatory treatment by a supplier of technology, goods and services and the right to full, timely adequate and prompt compensation for damages suffered by a consumer.
The bill attracted a few contributions in the House, which the speaker, Davis Katsonga attributed to a detailed report on the recommended amendments, which was prepared by the parliamentary committee on commerce when the bill was referred to it during the last sitting.
Meanwhile, the Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) has hailed Parliament for passing the bill, saying the development has “put us one step closer to conquering consumer abuse and exploitation by unscrupulous traders”.
In a press statement issued Monday evening by Cama public relations officer Tom Mtenje, the association said for a long time now consumers have been duped of their money by “greedy, powerful, profit-driven businesses who have had no qualms selling expired and harmful goods”.
“All this served to retard government’s efforts at poverty reduction and threatened the right to basic needs of the vulnerable poor. With a consumer law, susceptible consumers will be protected and provided with relief from abuse. We applaud government for championing the cause of the poor and would hope that the law is implemented at the earliest practicable time,” read the statement in part..
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