HYDERABAD: Does anyone care for the rights of tipplers? If you think not, you are wrong. For a liquor shop, that charged a mere Rs 44 extra for a bottle of whiskey, was asked to cough up Rs 24,000 as compensation by Rangareddy district consumer forum. The shop was dragged to the forum by a ‘conscious’ alcohol consumer who argued his case himself.
P Mahesh Goud (33) wanted Savera Wines, located in LB Nagar, to refund the Rs 44 it had collected in excess from him for a bottle of Ballantine’s Whiskey, in April 2017. The shop had claimed the extra money was ‘bank charges’ as he had paid using credit card.
In his complaint, Goud pointed out that the price of a bottle of Ballantine’s, according to a list released by the State government, was Rs 2,150.
He said he asked the wine shop why they charged him extra for the bottle, but they evaded the question. The shop, meanwhile, claimed they were only ‘rightfully’ charging the 1.6 % of the bill amount as ‘nominal bank charges’ because the amount was paid using a credit card.
However, the forum took a serious note of this practice of overcharging. It pointed out that the Reserve Bank of India had clearly told that it had not issued any instructions for levying extra charges on the customer for making payment through credit cards. Thus, the forum held, the Rs 44 charged extra amounted to an “unfair trade practice”. It ordered punitive charges of Rs 24,000 to be paid by the wine shop.
Consumers can file complaint with RBI
RBI has asked all the banks to break their relationship with those merchants who charge 1-2 % from consumers over bank charges. Consumers can raise a complaint with the RBI against merchants who charge this extra amount. Each Bank has a “Merchant Services” section on their website where the complaint can be filed.