October 15, 2002	Tuesday	Sha'aban 8, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 14: The Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan (CRCP) has emphasized the need for implementation of standards and conformity assessment schemes for reducing consumer cost of various essential items and utilities.

While commenting on “One standard, one test-accepted every where,” which is the theme of the World Standards Day this year, the CRCP secretary general, Mian Abrar Hafeez, said that such programmes lead to increased efficiency.

Explaining the relevance of standards and tests with consumer cost of goods and services, the secretary general said that standards and conformity assessment schemes were very effective instruments in reducing manufacturing cost and ultimately the consumer price.

He said the CRCP, in collaboration with Global Environment Facility (GEF) of the UNDP, had conducted a study on quality of home appliances, which revealed that the market was flooded with substandard and low quality electric and gas appliances.

The study showed that the use of substandard appliances added high amounts of money to the utility bills due to more consumption of electricity and gas, he added.

“Moreover, for gas appliances such as room heaters and cooking stoves, there are no quality standards.”

For some electric appliances such as fans, there existed quality standards but most of the locally manufactured fans consumed more energy than stipulated, which showed that the manufacturers were not complying with quality standards, he added.

Mr Hafeez lamented the fact that electric fans of good quality consumed 80 to 88 Watts of energy whereas many brands of fans consumed even more than 100 Watts.

He suggested that standards enforcement for goods and services was a viable option to reduce consumer cost.

The CRCP secretary general, while speaking on the issue of quality standards, said that Pakistan was lagging behind in formulation and implementation of standards for various essential items.

He said the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) had taken up the task of formulation, harmonization and enforcement of quality standards in the country.

Although the PSQCA has formulated or adopted ISO standards for 46 items including edible oils, banaspati ghee, and biscuits etc. but these standards are largely voluntary for the local industry to adopt, he added.

Mr Hafeez said the existence of these standards had became meaningless for citizens, because they had neither contributed much in improvement of quality nor in reduction of consumer cost through cost-effective interpretability and transportability.

He emphasized that the government must address the issues of standards enforcement on priority basis to assume greater place in the global trade market and ensure safety and affordability of goods and services for consumers.