Sarath Wijesinghe President’s counsel, former Ambassador to UAE and Israel former Chairman Consumer Affairs Authority and President Ambassador’s Forum UK/SL and Solicitor in United Kingdom and Wales

Current Legislation

Current legislation on consumer law and practice is inadequate, insufficient and ineffective and as a result the citizen suffers from all corners and the life is day bey day become harder due to the inadequacies on law and procedure. No changes have been made on the law and procedure since the inception of the enactment in the year 2003 in setting up the act no 9 of 2003 which is a mixture of USA, Canadian, Australian and English expected to be effective on competition law and based on the network of consumer organization. To the utter disappointment neither the competition law principles nor the network of the consumer organization’s net work has not been materialized and effect and effectiveness of the law and procedure based on regularization has a failure and a nonstarter. If one is critical of the current legal basis it is the duty of the critic to suggest better alternatives to the citizen aggrieved and pressed by the trader, industrialist, regulator and the rest of the population.

Proper trade policy and new consumer act

 it is a necessity for a country to possess a proper trade policy and an effective implementation of a protective measure for consumer which is considered to be the citizen of any country not properly organized in Sri Lanka. The current system is to be completely changed to meet the challenges of the current trends due to changes of trade and economic structure ever changing. Naturally the trader and industrialist is always prune to work for maximum profits and it is the duty of the regulator (governance) to adopt measures to protect the citizen which is effectively done in other aorta sf the world. In the United Kingdom the legal system of protecting the consumer is effective and advance followed by India adopting same or similar principles and guidelines which is an ideal system for Sri Lanka too to follow.

Way forward

Though the CAA act envisages formation the network of the consumer organization it is not implemented properly due to the inefficiency of the CAA which needs drastic changes and compete overhead of the system. The \minister of trade is a go getter and entotic but lacks knowledge and proper advice and guidance. He is an in ‘’Ivory tower’’ assuming that he knows the subject and depends on the officials surrounded the mistake generally committed by his predecessors.  Way out for success and so simple and Strater forward. Take a step back words and with his education the university stud the subject carefllly and seek advice of experts and professionals generally yes men in any governances. and not necessarily the government officials around any Minister, and start the programmer with the professionals and academic’s at OPA and other local and international organizations. There is a classic opportunity on 15^th March 2025, which is the world Consumer Day to start with harnessing and getting assistance of the OPA, BASL, and Consumer Organizations.

Suggest to incorporate consumer ombudsman and consumer courts in the new act

These two principles are successfully implemented in India with the help of the judiciary and governance promoting judicial activism and public interest litigation linked to consumerism, with advanced competitive law system and trade policy and active trade ministry unfortunately lacking and ineffective in Sri Lanka.

Author could be contacted on Sarath dw28@gmail.com and for references read price control 10^th June 1916/consumer courts  Hyde Park interview by Indeevari on U Tube/Consumer Ombudsman Ceylon Today 25.10.24/12.12.24 main challenge  on consumerism Lanka Web/ How to protect consumer12.4.2018 Lanka web/ 2.1.23 price control telegraph/ and many other that could be browsed from the internet on published articles by the author in various journals and papers.