Government today approved the introduction of the Consumer Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2001, in Parliament along with a Sugarcane Cess (Validation) Repeal bill, 2001. Announcing this after a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, parliamentary affairs minister Pramod Mahajan told reporters, the Consumer Bill is intended to amend certain provisions in the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, by facilitating quicker disposal of complaints and enhancing capability of the redressal agency.
Other provisions include strengthening and clarifying powers of the redressal fora, widening the scope of various provisions of the Consumer Protection Act and streamlining the procedure and removing lacunae in certain provisions, he said. The Sugarcane Cess (Validation) Repeal Bill would repeal the Sugarcane Cess (Validation) Act, 1961, which was enacted to validate imposition and collection of cess on sugarcane under certain state acts.
The Bill of 1961 was passed in order to allow the sugarcane cess already collected by the concerned state governments who otherwise did not have the authority to impose access or collect the sugarcane cess. Bureau Report