Company defrauds people in name of public awareness

By Bishnu Prasad Pokharel,Damak, Jan. 10: Damak Municipality has warned a company that allegedly defrauded people in the name of promoting Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) safety.

The municipality received complaints that LP Samyukta Kitchen Gas Centre, based in Khumaltar, Lalitpur Metropolitan City-15, was selling regulators and other items at higher-than-allowed prices. The company had received permission to make Damak denizens aware about LPG use and educate them on best ways to maintain safety. But it supposedly misused that permit to push its own products.

According to Dharma Raj Dahal 'Dipesh', spokesperson for the municipality and chairman of Ward No. 8, LP Samyukta went door-to-door, talked people into buying their regulators at high prices and then charged an addition Rs. 500 to install them.

It is to be further noted that the company is not registered with the local government nor does it have a local dealer authorised to sell its products in Damak.

Dahal informed that the company sold regulators worth Rs. 1,200 in market at Rs. 2,050. "This is outright fraud," he said, adding that the municipality stopped the company from contacting any more people as soon as it learnt of its fraudulent activities. He also said that the customers who had already purchased the regulators were refunded the Rs. 850 that they had initially overpaid.

"The local government has instructed LP Samyukta's representative Benu Kumar Khadka to refund the extra money it charged for its regulators, take back its product from customers who wish to return it and refund the whole amount and not fix a profit margin of more than 20 per cent if it wishes to sell any item in the municipality," Dahal said.

According to the municipality, the company had sold its products to more than 600 people by the time it was stopped.