KATHMANDU, Oct 4: The Department of Commerce, Supplies, and Consumer Protection (DOCSCP) has intensified its monitoring efforts, inspecting a total of 1,480 commercial establishments during the first one and a half months of the current fiscal year.
This represents a 14 percent increase compared to the previous fiscal year 2022/23. The monitoring activities took place from July 17 to October 3, according to Anandaraj Pokharel, the information officer of DOCSCP.
Among the establishments monitored, 442 businesses were imposed fines amounting to Rs 10.37 million for various violations, including lack of registration certificates, failure to issue purchase and sale invoices, sale of expired products, engaging in relabeling, and not cooperating with the monitoring process. This marks a 55 percent increase in fines compared to the same period in the previous year when 224 business establishments were fined a total of Rs 4.6 million. Fines imposed ranged from a minimum of Rs 2,000 to a maximum of Rs 300,000 per establishment.
Moreover, during the first one and a half months of the current fiscal year, DOCSCP took action to destroy various food and beverage products valued at over Rs 20 million. This action was taken in response to the discovery of three cases of relabeling, where commercial establishments had repackaged expired or deteriorated food and beverage products with new labels. All three establishments involved in relabeling were fined between Rs 200,000 and Rs 300,000 each.
Information Officer Pokharel also disclosed that during the monitoring process, DOCSCP confiscated and destroyed 333,339 bottles of beer worth Rs 9.7 million. This included the Barahsinghe brand produced by Yak Brewing Company and other brands from the same company that had expired. This comes after a similar incident in February when the department seized and destroyed 2,100 cartons of expired beer produced by the same company, valued at around Rs 6 million.