Fliers Flag Up To 15-Fold Higher MRP On Food Sold Onboard Flights
Products with similar net contents are being branded slightly differently to publish a significantly higher MRP onboard flights, finds a survey.
High and dual maximum retail prices for packaged water and food onboard flights are a major pain point for air passengers across the country, a survey showed.
As much as 59% of the fliers said airlines sold them packaged food with a published MRP higher than the MRP available in the market, while 72% of them reported higher prices for bottles of water in the last 12 months, according to a survey that was released by LocalCircles on Tuesday.
Consumers reported five to 15 times higher MRP being published on certain packaged products and sold on-board, the survey said.
Over the last 12 months, LocalCircles has received hundreds of complaints from consumers who have been charged a significantly higher price when buying packaged food or water onboard their flight. "This is despite the government guidelines and orders by the national commission prohibiting identical pre-packaged products from having different MRPs at different locations.
On June 23, 2017, the Union government amended the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, effectively banning dual MRP. However, in practice, this rule is still not being followed strictly due to a lack of proper enforcement, the survey said.
Consumers also indicate that products with similar net contents are being branded slightly differently to publish a significantly higher MRP for sales onboard flights, according to the survey.
It showed an image of a cup of noodles worth Rs 35 being rebranded and sold onboard for Rs 500 each. The survey received over 22,000 responses from consumers across 322 districts in India.
It said 63% of the respondents were men, while 37% were women. As many as 48% of the respondents were from Tier 1, 32% from tier 2 and 20% from Tier 3, Tier 4 and rural districts.
