new delhi institutional consumers such as airways educational entities hotels hospitals or any other service establishment which buy packaged commodities in bulk for their own use from manufacturers or wholesalers cannot sell them as a retailer as per the new rules notified by the consumer affairs ministry all such products will bear a declaration of not for retail salemoreover it mentions that there cannot be dual maximum retail price mrp for the same product by the same manufacturer unless otherwise specifically provided under any other law no manufacturer or packer or importer shall declare different mrps on the identical prepackaged commodity by adopting restrictive trade practices or unfair trade practices under consumer protection act the new rules saythere have been several instances of dual pricing of the same commodities such as drinking water for different locations such as airports hotels and multiplexesthe matter had even gone to the countrys apex consumer commission which had ruled against such practice the modifications in the legal metrology packaged commodities rules also specifies that all packaged items will mention best before and use by date for easy understanding of the consumers it says that items that have breached the use by date should not be regarded as marketable meaning these have to be discarded the new norms specify increased size of letters to be used on the packaging so that consumers can read them easilyall these norms will come into effect from january 1consumer affairs minister ram vilas paswan had been pushing for such amendments in the rules for benefit of the consumers according to the notification the retail price of the packaged item shall clearly indicate that it is the mrp inclusive of all taxes and the price in rupees and paise be rounded off to the nearest rupee or 50 paisefor imported items the new rule mandates that the manufacturer packer or importer to mention the barcode or qr code and ecode for net quantity assurance of the commodity they cannot use any government logo for their product including swachh bharat without getting permission from the government