MRP on Local Circles: Govt starts online community for inputs

The inputs on MRP will help resolve common issues and also frame new policies

The Consumer Affairs Ministry on Thursday said it has started a new online community on Local Circles, a social networking site, to encourage consumers to discuss and give inputs related to MRP (maximum retail price). 

The inputs on MRP and enforcement of weights and measures under the Legal Metrology Act will help resolve common issues and also frame new policies, it added.

The new online community has been initiated after seeing the success of the existing community 'Connected Consumers', which was started on a pilot basis in December 2016. Over 50,000 consumers are connected on this platform, it added.

The ministry said this community has "rapidly grown to this size".

"Via the community, consumers are raising issues as well as collectively identifying specific solutions to those issues. Solutions identified by consumers are being evaluated by the Department of Consumer Affairs and many of them are taken as inputs for policy  making," it added.

Some of the key consumer inputs received so far include removal of service charge or making it optional and giving the consumer as an option to fill it in the invoice based on experience.

Among others include making a display of MRP information mandatory for products sold on e-Commerce sites, making MRP mandatory on all medical devices, solutions to lower consumer and merchant charges on debit and credit card transactions, as well as solutions to prohibit sales of products above MRP and ending dual MRP for water, it added.