The long awaited Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) Act will be presented to parliament next month, according to a top official.

The Act is expected to sharpen the teeth of the CAA in increasing fines from Rs.1500 to a minimum of Rs.100 000 under new amendments proposed for the fresh bill.

The new bill, which has been in the pipeline for years, also includes more powers of investigation and even reduction of fixed retail prices at CAA discretion. The Act has been sent to the Attorney Generals Department to be drawn out before being presented to parliament. The current CAA Act, No.9 of 2003 was viewed as having insufficient teeth prompting the authority to draft out a new bill, remarked CAA Chairman Rumy Marzook.

The Chairman noted that the delay was prompted by the necessity of drafting the Act in Sinhala, Tamil and English simultaneously and that Consumer Affairs Minister Bandula Gunawardene hopes to present it to parliament at some point during April.

He also told The Bottom Line that under the new amendments, fines would be increased significantly with the lowest tagged at Rs.100 000, thus giving the CAA powers to demand larger amounts as fines from unscrupulous traders. It would also give the organisation stronger investigative powers to bring traders that engage in anti-competitive practices to book.

“These are improvements on the earlier Act that was brought in 2003. Often our officials are hampered by inadequate legal powers when they apprehend traders who are selling sub standard products. But we hope with the infusion of this new Act they will have the power to act more decisively. The fines will also be imposed according to the number of times the said offense has been committed, which will prompt traders to be more careful,” he said.

The Chairman remarked that the current fines of Rs.1000 or Rs.1500 were woefully inadequate to curb trader malpractices and that the new Act would rectify this. He also stressed that they would have the power to reduce maximum retail prices if the Authority considered it unfair.

Currently only private companies that sell products on the CAA list of essential items need permission from the organisation in order to increase prices. This is done after the CAA Board of Directors deliberate on a pricing application submitted by the company. The CAA must respond within thirty days or the company can increase prices to the amount specified in the application.

One of the main shortcomings of the essential items list is that it is not expansive enough to include many of the necessary items subject to inflation. However Marzook noted that the current list of just 16 items would not be expanded under the new Act.