Kathmandu, June 6

Market inspection team of the government has found some traders cheating consumers using defective weighing machines. The inspection team deployed by the Department of Supply Management and Protection of Consumer Interest (DoSMPCI) today found various retail traders around Sundhara and Kalimati area in the Kathmandu Valley cheating consumers by using defective weighing machines.

“We found a number of traders using weighing machines that do not meet the legal standard set by the government,” Kumar Prasad Dahal, director general of DoSMPCI, said, adding that the deployed teams have seized such weighing machines from the traders.

The government monitoring team had found traders using extremely old weighing machines that gave inaccurate readings and also were uncertified by the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM).

The DoSMPCI has started a week-long intensive market monitoring in the Valley from today. The department inspected 81 different business firms on the first day of the monitoring week.

The team also disposed 20 kilograms of substandard fish being sold at one of the outlets in Khichapokhari.

Similarly, the department had also inspected transportation sector and found 29 public vehicles overcharging passengers. The team had penalised such transporters up to Rs 5,000 on the spot.

Likewise, the monitoring team also directed different pharmacies not to overcharge customers.

The department plans to carry out inspection in LPG and dairy industries on Wednesday.