Hosiery manufacturers seek removal of its products from Packaged Rules

Hosiery manufacturers vexed over the continuance of hosiery products under the provisions of Standards and Measurements Act, and ‘Packaged Commodity Rules’ as it is mandatory for the hosiery manufacturers to mention certain things on the package cover as label marking like number of pieces inside, maximum retail price per piece, name of the manufacturer and few other things all under the heading of ‘Packing commodity rules declaration’ and thus seeking its removal from the regulations.

According to R.Damodaran, a hosiery manufacturer and joint secretary of South India Hosiery Manufacturers Association, due to this rule, the hosiery manufacturers are subjected to harassment by officials after the products are sold to the retail vendors. If the vendor sell one piece of say an undergarment from the main packet that contains 10 pieces or break the main packet, the manufacturers are being penalized.

The garments can only be sold only as individual pieces and hence, should not be treated on a par with the other packaged commodities.
The committee pointed out in the report that under the Acts, a packaged commodity is defined as one which is securely packed and cannot be removed from the package even at the time of sale (like edible items). But the garments on the other hand are frequently removed from its package by the customers to try out the size before purchasing the same, he said.

The hosiery manufacturers pointed out that the Packaged Commodity Rules 1977 actually came during the Emergency period subsequent to the formulation of ‘Defence of India packaged commodities (regulation) orders 1975’. Hosiery products were then removed immediately from the ambit of the Act in 1975 itself.

Later in 1992, when the rules were amended, the hosiery products started being termed as ‘packaged commodity.

He pointed out that the expert committee of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce of Industry that presented ‘Vision, strategy and action plan for Indian textile and apparel sector’ to the Union Textiles Ministry had sought the removal of garments from the provisions of the said two stipulations.