Packaged drinking water comes costlier
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, July 22 2012:
Of late, quenching one's thirst from a bottle of packaged drinking water sold in the shop has become a trend in our society.
But taking undue advantage of this trend, the shopkeepers are selling the packaged drinking water bottles at a price much higher price than the tagged price.
The tagged Maximum Retail Price (MRP) of a one-litre packaged drinking water is Rs 15.However, one finds the same being sold at Rs 15.The rate is even higher in some hotels and restaurants providing lodging facilities.
There one bottle of packaged drinking water is charged anywhere between Rs 20 and 30 or double times of the actual retail price.
Most of the packaged drinking water bottled sold in Manipur are packed locally.
Only few of them come from outside the state.
Some of the packaged drinking water bottles, which are processed and packed in the state itself by certain private companies are Evoke, Silverdew, Lika, Magic Dew, Aquadew, Spring, Yes, Alpine, Fresh, etc.
It is learnt that selling of packaged drinking water bottles at rate higher than the MRP is being done without the knowledge of the concerned companies/industries.
When Hueiyen Lanpao contacted some of the packaging units of packaged drinking water in Manipur, they informed that packaged drinking water bottles of one little capacity are made available to the shopkeepers at Rs 8 to 9 and the company gets a marginal profit of 50 paisa or 1 rupee at the maximum from one water bottle.
It has also been found that apart from packaged drinking water bottles, a number of eatable packaged foods are being sold at a much higher rate than the MRP.
With such cases of deceit going on in the heart of Imphal, it seems there is no authority to check the illegal hike in price of certain commodities in Manipur.