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Friday,
March 15, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Consumer
issues: BIS holds key BIFR seeks
relief for ESPL WLL
services in Kangra, Chamba soon ONGC
Videsh opens office in Russia
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ICICI
Bank, ICICI merger soon
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TODAY IS WORLD CONSUMER DAY “If we delay, we pay”. This should really sound like music to Indian consumers who have for long fought for such compensation from service providers. Air Sahara’s recent announcement that it would pay Rs 1,500 in cash or Rs 3,000 worth of ticket credit to its passengers for any flight delay beyond 55 minutes should certainly come as a pleasant surprise to air passengers, even though the offer is applicable only on direct metro flights. (And hopefully, there is nothing in small print there that takes away what is promised !) Initially other airlines may dismiss it as a gimmick, but given the stiff competition on this sector, one can well expect them to follow suit, may be with even better offers!.. But what is important here is the underlining promise of punctuality and the recognition of the fact that the consumer ought to be compensated for any failure on the part of the service provider to keep up that promise. The consumer courts have time and again held that delay in providing a service constitutes deficiency in that service and that a consumer who suffers on account of such deficiency is entitled to compensation. So an offer of compensation against delayed flights is a recognition of the consumer’s right to quality service and a commitment to pay a price for any disruption in service, without the consumer having to ask for it. In fact, such payment is more in the nature of a “penalty against service guarantee” and not a compensation for any specific loss or suffering undergone by the consumer. Just as telecommunication service provider or the power supply undertaking imposes a surcharge on the consumer for any delay in payment of bill beyond the “pay by” date, the service provider ought to pay a fine for any delay in the provision of the service. And the voluntary offer is in the nature of such payment: an acceptance on the part of the service provider, of his responsibility towards fulfilling a performance standard, a service obligation. In fact five years ago, when the government asked all Central government departments and public sector undertakings to prepare a Charter of Citizens Rights or consumers’ entitlements vis-à-vis the services provided by them, this was what consumers and consumer groups expected. Since the charters were meant to bring about efficiency, transparency and accountability , it was hoped that the service providers would not only spell out specific performance standards that would be enforced, but also offer a reasonable penalty in case they failed to meet these standards. Besides promising a reasonable speed that would befit the nomenclature of “super fast”, the Indian Railways, for example, was expected to offer to return at least the super fast surcharge if these trains reached their destinations late. Similarly, one hoped that telecommunication service providers like MTNL and BSNL would promise not just rectification of faults within a specified number of hours, but also offer a penalty of say Rs 50 per day for every day of delay beyond the promised period. Likewise, the anticipation from the insurance companies was that they would guarantee settlement of claims within a specified period and pay a decent penal interest if they failed to perform accordingly. In short, the charter was meant to set service standards, improve the quality of service and at the same time, make the service provider accountable to the consumer. The Citizens Charter in the UK, on the basis of which our own charter scheme was modeled, has such in-built penalty clauses. In 1989, for example, British Telecom introduced a scheme giving consumers £ 5 sterling a day for any delay in rectification of telephone fault beyond the promised period. Alternatively, for proven loss, business customers could claim up to £ 5000 sterling and residential customers up to £ 1000 sterling. The London Underground promised to issue a refund voucher if a passenger had to wait on the platform for more than 20 minutes or if the train reached its destination 20 minutes late. Similarly, there were guaranteed standards of performance and a voluntary penalty offer in the power sector. The idea was that as quality of service improved, so would the promises and the quantum of penalty. Today we have over 200 such charters drawn up by various government departments and public sector undertakings, including the Indian Railways, insurance companies, hospitals, banks, basic telecommunication service providers, Ministry of Petroleum, central works department and passport office. Many states and local municipalities have also published citizens charters in respect of various services provided by them. But barring a few charters drawn up by one or two state governments, no charter has come forward with performance guarantees or penalty clauses. Forget penalty clauses, most of them are not even prepared to commit themselves to specific performance standards. May be in this age of economic liberalisation and competition, the private sector will lead the way and come up with offers of payment of penalty for failing to perform to self-declared standards of service. And hopefully the World Consumer Rights Day (March 15) would give the necessary impetus for such a move.
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Consumer issues: BIS holds key The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has come to occupy an important place in the development of the nation and protection of consumers interests. The BIS has conclusively demonstrated that it is possible to bring together diverse interests — officials and non-officials, the public and private sector, producers and consumers — and make them work together in nation-building tasks through development of national standards. The need of standards of quality is nowhere felt so strongly than by consumers. Standards play an important communication link between the consumer’s needs and the producer’s capability. Standards are important for the exchange of goods. For example, a safety razor blade should fit into the safety razor, no matter where we buy the safety razor or blades; an electric lamp should fit into a holder bought from anywhere, etc. Hence it is imperative that proper standards for products are laid down and adhered to. The BIS has already issued over 17,000 standards in different fields, of which 60 per cent constitute product standards. Nearly 2,000 of these have direct relevance to consumers. Some of the items are condensed milk, biscuits, coffee powder, cement, LPG cylinders, custard powder, incandencent lamps, electric appliances, pesticides and durables etc. While standardisation and certification are activities that promote consumer welfare, the BIS has made conscious efforts to project its role of consumer protection with the setting up of a nodal department — the Consumer Affairs Department. This department has been maintaining close relations with consumers and their associations, on the one hand, and the Central Consumer Protection Council and the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution on the other, to provide Consumer Welfare. The Bureau is making concerted efforts to train and educate various office-bearers of consumer associations about BIS activities. Awareness programmes are being organised through its regional and branch offices. Efforts are also being made to spread awareness about standardisation and the BIS role among school children so as to bring about an understanding about the role of standardisation during their formative years. The BIS has an all India network. Its Consumer Affairs Department is there to help consumers, in case they come across any BIS certified product which they deem to be substandard. The use of the standard mark or its imitation is an offence under the BIS Act punishable with imprisonment extending up to one year and a fine of upto Rs 50,000/-. The BIS also has the power to search and seize, in case reasonable doubt exists, about any misuse of the standard mark. Consumers are advised to be careful about products carrying the lable “Conforming to ISI” or “Fitted with ISI element” as these markings are spurious and illegal and mislead the consumer. Consumers are advised to be wary of such misrepresentations and bring them to the Bureau’s notice. The consumers feedback would help the BIS tighten the supervisory control over manufacturers and this, in turn, would help the industry concerned to become a trusted and respected enterprise for the common man, thereby making — a vital contribution to the improvement of
life. — The writer is the Deputy Director-General of the Bureau of Indian Standards.
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BIFR seeks relief for ESPL SAS Nagar, March 14 According to the scheme approved by the BIFR, promoters (PSIDC) are to bring in Rs 5 crore by way of bridge loan to ESPL to pay off the OTS dues of banks. The BIFR, in its order on February 20 had asked the Punjab Government to give various reliefs and concessions to the company. These include declaring ESPL as a nodal agency for Punjab, absorbing surplus employees deputed to different departments, corporations and boards of the state government and declaring the company an approved training centre. According to Mr Vivek Aggarwal, Managing Director, the company was vying for ISO 9001-2000 certification and decided to restart the production of ceramic disc capacitors. The plans include promoting its DAS and C & I systems, increasing its AMC of computers and promoting its photo identity projects.
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WLL services in Kangra, Chamba soon Dharamsala, March 14 Addressing a press conference here today, General Manager Telecommunications O.P. Sikka, said the end of March, this year the figure would touch 1.25 lakh with a provision of giving an equal number of phones during the next financial year. “Our endeavour is to reach all 3,912 revenue villages in Kangra and Chamba, out of which merely 80 remain to be connected,”. “Barring Bharmour all our 150 telephone exchanges under the Dharamsala circle have been put on optical fibre, making the services much more reliable and efficient, “he said. Mr Sikka said while the wireless in local loop (WLL) system had already been installed in Dalhousie, Tissa, Mehmoor, Surani, Kangra and Ashapuri, the department hoped to provide GSM mobile services to subscribers by the first quarter of this year. “The survey, being conducted by Ericson is already underway and shortly they will install all required equipment for
providing mobile services, “he revealed.
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ONGC Videsh opens office in Russia
Moscow, March 14 ONGC Videsh possesses 20 per cent stake in the massive Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project as a result of a deal with Russia's oil and gas major Rosneft. India is expected to invest about $1.5-2 billion in the project, which is the country's single largest investment abroad and one of the largest foreign investments in the Russian economy in recent times. Sakhalin-1 is a huge upstream project to operate oil and gas fields on the offshore shelf of Sakhalin island in Russia's far east and includes development of three fields -- Chaivo, Odoptu and Arkutun -- with total proven reserves of 340 million tonnes of oil and 420 billion cubic metres of natural gas. An ExxonMobil Ltd-led international consortium comprising its subsidiary Exxon Neftegaz and Japan's Sodeco with 30 per cent stakes each in the project and Russia's Rosneft with 40 per cent were developing the fields. Following the Indo-Russian deal, Rosneft transferred 50 per cent of its stake in the consortium to India, making it a holder of a 20 per cent stake in the project. The deal is a major advantage of India, as it is covered by a production-sharing arrangement. "The project is in an advanced stage of exploration, and oil and gas production is expected to commence in 2005," Indian Ambassador K. Raghunath, who, along with ONGC chairman Atul Chander, took part in the opening of the ONGC Videsh office in Sakhalin, said. India is world's fastest growing and fifth largest energy market, and the hydrocarbon vision prepared by the Indian Government shows that based on planned annual growth rate of 6 per cent, the gap between availability and demand for crude oil will increase in the years to come. Indian participation in the Sakhalin-1 project is major step in meeting part of this projected demand-supply gap. Russia has been identified as a focus country for undertaking such upstream projects in order to meet India's growing energy demands in future and the two countries have initiated an energy security dialogue in order to enhance cooperation in this vital sector between the two strategic partners.
IANS
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