- Union Minister Mr Piyush Goyal has addressed a workshop on the decriminalization of offenses under legal metrology by states.
- He has requested the states to take the decision on decriminalization and participate in the discussion so that the proper decision can be taken out of it.
- In the workshop which was addressed by Mr Piyush Goyal, it was discussed that citing data for first and second offenses in the last four years has been released, and it was difficult to understand how the number of second offenses fell drastically after the first offenses.
- In the years 2001–2022, the number of cases booked for the first time was nearly 74,721, out of which 55,779 cases were compounded.
- The number of cases filed for the second offense fell to 11 and the number of cases filed in the court of law for the second offense stood at only seven.
- Further, Mr Piyush Goyal claimed that the state and consumer organizations are against the central move to decriminalize the provision of legal metrology.
- The minister requests the states to come and discuss the issues so that a draft can be put in the public domain for feedback from all these stakeholders and shareholders of businesses.
- It is the primary responsibility of the government to protect the interests and rights of the consumer, but it is also discussed that it is also the responsibility of the government to protect businesses from unnecessary harassment and losses.
- A proper need to differentiate between bona fide and malafide intentions to strike a balance between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law is much needed.
- The minister pointed out the issues regarding the states, considering that states are not taking a keen interest in resolving the issues. Several ministers from several states did not even come up for the meeting, which shows that not every state is very serious about the matter and not interested in processing the decriminalization of the offenses under the legal metrology act.
- It has been regularly suggested that the offenses committed by the bigger businesses and the small vendors should be different from each other as the small vendor cannot pay or he would not be liable to pay an equal amount of penalty which can be easily payable by the bigger businesses or the companies.
- It is requested in the workshop to all these states to participate in the conversation and give their suggestions and opinions so that the proper decision can be taken with the mutual consent of all the states and the proper regularization of the act shall take place.
Read Related Blog: Graded Penalties Under Legal Metrology by the Central Government
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