77 Colombo moneylenders fined for selling rice at high prices

Last June, 77 Colombo district businessmen who were arrested by the Colombo District Consumer Unit for selling rice above the control price were fined 20,39,500 rupees.

In addition to the fine, one businessman has also been sentenced to three months in prison.

Those businessmen have been fined under the charges of selling rice at a higher price than the control price, not displaying the prices, and changing the information on the rice packaging.

Colombo District Consumer Affairs Investigation Chief Mr. Gamini Athapattu said that they were arrested during raids on supermarkets and wholesale shops.

If any businessman sells rice at a higher price than the control price set by the government or if he commits the above mistakes, he requests the consumers to inform the consumer authority and to keep the bills of rice purchase in their possession.

Mr. Athapattu said that the government had previously issued a control price for the sale of local Nadu rice at 220 rupees, samba rice at 230 rupees, Keeri samba at 260 rupees, and white and red rice at 210 rupees. said.

He further said that apart from rice, a total of 102 raids including 25 other raids related to violation of consumer laws were conducted in the month of June.

Senior Investigation Officer Ranjana, and Investigation Officers Isuru Perera, Manoj Jayakodi, Tanuj Weerakoon, Nuwan Edirisinghe, Piyal Samaranayake SP on the direction of Colombo District Chief Mr. Gamini Athapattu as per the advice of Mr. Shanta Kiriella, Chairman of the Consumer Authority and Mr. Pradeep Yasaratne, Colombo District Secretary. . Officers Punchihewa, Aravinda Shalitha and Dhanuka Gunaratne have conducted these raids.