Protection of consumers' rights

The enactment by of the Consumer Rights Protection act 2009, to safeguard the interest of the consumers was very timely and welcome step. For too long the consumers in Bangladesh were helpless victims of the service providers who, in spite of the well established norms of providing the best value for the good purchased , did not measure up to the standard. And there was precious little that the consumer could do and had very little scope to have their grievances redressed.
However it appears that some of the provisions in the new law create more hindrances than compensate the consumer for not getting the worth for his or her money. This was made obvious in the comments of various speakers, including the Chairman of the Law commission, at a roundtable on Consumer Rights Protection act 2009, recently, wherein it was suggested that the said law, being faulty as it did not ensure the consumers' rights and interests, should be amended. A case in point is that while the guilty party faces the prospect of fine or jail there is no provision for compensating the aggrieved party i.e. the consumer.
What begs the question is why were the loopholes, or the shortcomings, not identified before the draft was placed to the parliament. Is it not the responsibility of the law ministry to scrutinise all draft laws before they are considered by the House? Not all laws are concerned with the law ministry but it is our understanding that it is the law ministry's responsibility to ensure that the draft that is put up as a bill is without any lacuna.
Side by side with updating the consumer law we feel that all relevant actions to implement the act should be started in full gear. We understand that the government, for the purpose of ensuring consumer rights, has planned to set up a National Consumer Protection Rights Council, to be formed at the district level in the first phase, which would receive complaints from the consumers. This should be set up immediately. Alongside this, the government should also complete the process of enacting a competition law which would help increase competitiveness among businesses so that they offer quality goods and services at fair prices.
We feel that both the law ministry and the law commission should both suggest necessary changes which must be incorporated in the law without delay. We would want the law to ensure that the consimers are provided qualty goods in the right quantity and the right price, and the access to, and the processof the remedy should be prettiy much straightforward deliver relief in quick time.