Government urged to delay Consumer Protection Law

JAKARTA (JP): Business associations urged the government on Friday to delay the implementation of the Consumer Protection Law, saying that most industries were not yet well prepared enough for it.

Executive director of the Association of Indonesian Retailers (APRINDO) Kustarjono Prodjolalito said it would take about three years for the business community and consumers alike to prepare themselves for the implementation of the law.

"Three years is about the minimum time for everybody to really understand their rights and obligations," Kustarjono said.

The government plans to implement Consumer Protection Law No.8/1999 by next month, one year after it was enacted by legislators.

Kustarjono said the retail industry would need more time to discuss the bill with producers to be able to implement the law effectively.

For instance, he said, producers were responsible for the quality of their products sold by retailers, while retailers' responsibility was not to display expired products.

Kustarjono added the government should further familiarize the law to consumers to avoid misperceptions that could lead to unnecessary suits.

Regulations to support the law were also lacking, Kustarjono said.

He said for example the law should be supported with a regulation obliging producers to insure their products or services so that consumers could get compensation for their losses. However, thus far such a regulation was nonexistent.

The new law would guarantee consumers' rights to obtain security and comfort when using or consuming products and services, and honest information from the producers.

Violating the law could cause producers or traders to face a maximum fine of Rp 2 billion (US$ 270,270) and prison terms of up to five years.

The law would ban the printing on store receipts of the statement: "Purchased good cannot be returned", as well as misleading ads promoting products or services.

Thomas Darmawan, director of the Indonesian Food and Beverage Association, said implementing the law would be especially difficult for small-scale food vendors as the law required them to attach labels to their products.

"You can't expect them to attach detailed labels on each item they sell on the streets," Thomas said.

He said small business were financially not prepared to comply with the law.

Thomas estimated two years would be enough to raise the public's awareness of the law.

He said he planned to establish a Consumer Protection Law Forum whose objective was to discuss the law and provide suggestions to the government on ways to best implement it.

The forum, he said, would consist of members of the business community, nongovernment organizations as well as government officials.

Advisor to the domestic trade compartment of the Indonesian Chamber of Industry and Trade, Hidayat, said delaying the implementation of the law was reasonable as the Indonesian business community was still struggling to recover from the economic crisis.

He said the country's business community was already so busy making preparations for the implementation of the Antimonopoly Law, that it would be too burdensome for them to also prepare themselves for the implementation of the Consumer Protection Law.

Nevertheless, he doubted that the government would delay the implementation of the bill.

According to him, implementing the bill would make the government and legislators appear to be protecting the interests of consumers.(bkm)