Consumer is supposed to be the king of the market. However, the consumer chooses not to be. Yesterday I had gone to purchase 1litre milk. I inquired in 6 diaries in Dombivli and all of them charge 1Re per litre extra over and above MRP. This is a kind of a rule applied by the shopkeepers on any branded milk. As far as my knowledge goes this practice is followed in most parts of Mumbai.This happens even in Bengaluru(as per the input received from a friend staying there)
The point is everybody thinks its only 1Re whats the big deal. I am putting forth a point I hope it makes sense. Correct me if I am wrong. Now in Mumbai itself 50 lakhs litre packed milk may be sold per day. So illegal(against the Consumer Protection Act,1986) money of at least 50lakhs is generated EVERYDAY. I presume that such charges will not be accounted by the shops and hence no taxes are paid on such amount. So on an annual basis nearly 150crores of revenue goes tax free. Which effectively means a loss of 50crores of tax to the government. Now this is some amount.
Who is responsible for the black money?YOU and ME(the king of the market). The so called educated class is responsible and we blame the government. I call the so called educated class as literate class.
Remember we pay the amount and it becomes a norm and for us annual amount of 300+ Rs may not be that important but for someone this amount makes a difference.
We all pay our taxes regularly but somewhere our 1Re is responsible for black money getting generated in the market. Who has to take the responsibility for this? The shopkeepers are much united compared to the consumers.
The reason given by the shopkeeper is that the commission which they receive is not affordable and hence they charge the extra 1Re. Its a matter to be dealt by the agent and the company how is the consumer involved. The shopkeepers know it is difficult to get the extra commission from the company and consumer will not bother about the extra Re.
FYI The extra Re collected is more than the commission which they receive per litre.
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9 comments:
Sir,
Just for the sake of example lemme tel you.....
When you purchase a mumbai mirrior along with times of India and together it costs Rs4.50p, I bet no newspaper wala will give you
50p back, I always pay 5 bugs every day and when I ask for change you get those puppy eyes saying "madam chutta nahi hai".
Whey purchase a mobile recharge card what ever be the vlaue they always take Rs.2 extra and on asking for what they are charging it they say "Service charges madam ".
We generally tend to pay and forget it but thats not, fair at all!!
Good that you made it a point sir,
And yes you are great at mathematics and taxation as well :)
Sir, what's the solution? Sure, milk is only a case in point. There are hazaar other things on similar lines.
If the prices are officially raised to cover the 1Re commission, in effect it is going to cost us the same. May be they will still add a rupee to it. So we protest, assuming all of us do. That in itself is a huge problem to get the mass into this. We spend a day behind this complaining to the right people, yet things might not change. Overall, we lose a day's income which might well be over Rs.365/- on average.
I get your point Sir, but I am just playing devil's advocate. Call me a skeptic, but I see it this way. Why not use the time creating value that's worth more than the rupee you pay. End of the day, the extra rupee paid is going towards feeding a family. Like the other part of milk price goes.
Good to see u after a long time..
Keep posting!!!
@sir
We need to start somewhere or else a day will come when the things will be so much out of control that we wont be able to do anything about it.
In this case also though its a very small thing seems nothing feasible solution is coming out. What will happen if there is a big problem.
If the small things are not controlled it will lead to a big trouble.
If a window is broken its an encouragement to break it without thinking much about it.
@nitin
Thx a lot
Sie, when you say that the Re. 1 is not accounted, there's an underlying assumption that they account for all the sales properly, though at the MRP(which is Re. 1 less)....which i dont think is the case.
Waise my vendor says that the extra Re. 1 is for refrigerating it.....;-)
@Vishal
If u pay the MRP and they dont account it u r not responsible for the unaccounted money. Here we r to be blamed for the black money.
MRP is as per my understanding an ultimate price(including all charges)
Charging more than MRP on item like packaged drinking water is an offence under rule 23 (2) of the standards of weights and measures (Packaged Commodities )Rules-1977.The maximum punishment for the same is fine which may extend to Rs 2000 per responsible person.
Towards the discussion carried out at class, why not to take media's help. They mostly bring these issues on their channels and I thought that somewhere we'll be able to gather more public in our favour...
Just had this thought...
...well I totally agree with you posting everything here & all your replies towards the other commenters...
...I appreciate your efforts...
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