70% consumers unaware of their rights

Around 70 percent consumers are unaware of their rights and remain silent even after being deceived by service providers, officials said.

But they can easily seek assistance from concerned department, Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection’s Director General Md. Shafiqul Islam said while talking to Jago News on Wednesday.

On this day, Bangladesh like other countries observe World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) to promote the basic rights of all consumers, demanding that those rights are respected and protected.

The directorate sources said, consumer rights protection act was enacted in 2009 in Bangladesh and the directorate was formed to implement the law.

According to official figures, the directorate fined 24,652 institutions Tk. 17,79,27,000 over complains filed by deceived consumers and 25% of the money was distributed among the complainers in accordance with laws.

This year WCRD theme in Bangladesh is “Building a Digital Bangladesh Consumers Can Trust” while worldwide theme is “Building a Digital World Consumers can Trust”.

The first World Consumer Rights Day was observed on 15 March 1983, and has since become an important occasion for mobilising citizen action.

(The article originally published in Bangla edition of Jagonews24.com is written in English by Zahidul Islam)