Restaurant fined for billing more than the MRP on soft drink
By Newsmeter Network Published on 12 Sep 2019 6:41 PM GMT
Hyderabad: Ever paid an extra penny on either a soft drink or for a water bottle in any restaurant, be aware then you are being cheated, as the same is against the consumer rights and these restaurants are not supposed to charge any additional amount upon the Maximum Retail Price (MRP). For the same reason a restaurant, Santosh Castle at Abids was fined an amount of Rs. 3,000 for overcharging a customer for Rs. 4 on each soft drink by the Legal Metrology department.
Narrating the incident, Mr. Srikhande Umesh Kumar, the complainant, who works as a Lecturer at Narayana IAS academy said that he went to Santhosh Castle on August 2 along with his friends and they had ordered food along with 4 soft drinks on which they were charged an additional amount of Rs. 4 on each soft drink and when they questioned restaurant they only got the reply that it's 'usual' to charge excess amount on soft drinks for all the customers.
Soon after the same consumer has approached legal Meterology department who later on August 23 made a surprise inspection and gave notice to the restaurant to respond for the violations that they found against the rules.
As per the Legal Metrology Rule 18(2) of PC Rules 2011, "No retail dealer or another person including manufacturer, packer, importer and wholesale dealer shall make any sale of any commodity in the packed form at a price exceeding the retail sale price thereof"
Responding to the notice, the restaurant stated that it would adhere to the Legal Metrology rules from now on and paid an amount of Rs. 3,000.
Despite rules, in place, many restaurants continue to collect the excess amount on soft drinks & water bottle and silence the consumers whoever questions them in place stating that the charge is for 'ambience' and others.
More and more people should come forward and take this kind of incidents to the notice of concerned authorities for proper action. Strict measures need to be taken to enforce the rules that are in place added Mr Umesh Kumar.
