Accepting the Central Government’s decision to file a Rs640 crore suit against Nestle for unfair trade practice and substandard production of Maggi, the National Consumer Court has served a notice to the multi-national company and fixed September 30 as the next date of hearing.
The court served the notice to Nestle, which got a relief from Bombay High Court last week, on the petition of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs which alleged unfair trade practice and selling defective and hazardous products.
Minister of Food and Consumer Affairs Ram Vilas Paswan said here on Thursday that Rs640 crore have been calculated on the basis of the company’s sale and profit in one year. He said its sale of Maggi was Rs2,840 crore and its profit was Rs1,147 crore.
“The Ministry has decided to levy fine to the tune of 10 per cent of the sale (Rs284 crore) and 30 per cent on profit (Rs355 crore) which comes to Rs640 crore. If we win this suit Rs640 crore will be used to set up a consumer welfare body,” said Paswan.
Giving the background of the controversy related to Maggi, he said the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in Barabanki had taken some samples and in the laboratory test the content of lead and mono-sodium glutamate (MSG) was found to be higher than the permitted limit.
Even Nestle’s reference to another laboratory in Kolkata found the allegation true. later on over a dozen States reported similar problems and Nestle decided to withdraw the product but also moved Bombay High Court. “Our contention is that Nestle did not take mandatory permission from the FSSAI. The law Ministry also opined that we can take cognizance of the irregularities and take class action,” said Paswan.
The Minister said his Ministry had moved amendments in the Bureau of Indian Standards and Consumer Protection Acts to make them more forceful. As per the amendments the Government would be enabled to take action against the misleading advertisements, Consumer Courts would deliver judgement in 90 days and applications would be admitted in 21 days and there would be no need for hiring lawyer to plead the case.
Touching upon the food security issue, Paswan clarified that after the implementation of the National Food Security Act, the categories of BPl and APl have been done away with but retained the Antyodaya category. He said after the implementation of the Act the number of beneficiaries in Bihar rose to about 1.59 crore families and 8.71 crore individuals but the State was getting 4.9 lakh tonnes of food grains per months for 7.60 crore beneficiaries because the State did not provide the list of 1.10 crore beneficiaries. Only last fortnight the State Government sent a list of 78 lakh of which five lakh bore only names and not addresses.
“We have approved food grains supply for the 73.78 lakh beneficiaries and once we get list of remaining 36.76 lakh beneficiaries, food grains would be allotted for them too,” said Paswan.