Reserve Bank of India to bring out Charter on consumer rights

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is working towards bringing out a charter on consumer rights to curb instances of ponzi and online lottery schemes, a senior bank official said in Chennai on Friday.

There have been several instances of online lottery scam asking people to pay service charge in order to release a large sum. Unfortunately, quite a few consumers do fall prey to it, RBI Executive Director, Umashankar Paliwal, said.

Paliwal was speaking at a two-day conference on Consumer Product Safety, organised by Consumer Association of India, in the Tamil Nadu capital.

The executive said a large number of people who were victims of such scams had sought the central bank's action against such companies.

Appealing to people not to fall prey to such schemes, he said RBI was working on a Charter on Consumer Rights.

Basically, this Charter covers issues such as Right to Fair Treatment, Right to Transparency, Fair and honest dealing, Right to Suitability, Right to Privacy, Right to Grievance Redress and Compensation to the consumers, he said.

Boards of banks would be passing the charter and the RBI would be monitoring it, Paliwal said.