New Delhi, Dec 17 : The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has imposed penalties of Rs 61.60 lakh on 19 coaching institutes and issued notices to 45 coaching centres for misleading advertisements, the Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

On November 13, 2024, the CCPA had issued "Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisement in Coaching Sector, 2024" in order to prevent coaching centres from making false or misleading claims and advertisements to promote the sale of goods or services and engage in deceptive or unfair practices, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs B.L. Verma told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

The National Consumer Helpline (NCH), administered by the Department of Consumer Affairs, has emerged as a single point of access to consumers across the country for their grievance redressal at a pre-litigation stage. Consumers can register their grievances from all over the country in 17 languages through a toll-free number 1915. These grievances can be registered on the Integrated Grievance Redressal Mechanism (INGRAM), an omni-channel IT-enabled central portal, through various channels- WhatsApp, SMS, mail, NCH app, web portal, Umang app, as per their convenience, the minister said.

As many as 1,004 companies, who have voluntarily partnered with the NCH, as part of the 'Convergence' programme, directly respond to these grievances according to their redressal process, and revert by providing feedback to the complainant on the portal. Complaints against those companies, who have not partnered with the NCH, are forwarded to the company's email ID for redressal, he said.

The minister also highlighted that the Department of Consumer Affairs, through the NCH, has successfully intervened at a pre-litigation stage to ensure justice for students and aspirants who enrolled for the UPSC Civil Services, IIT, and other entrance examinations. Following numerous complaints registered in the NCH regarding unfair practices by various coaching centres, especially not refunding the enrolment fees of the students, the NCH initiated a drive to resolve these grievances on a mission mode to facilitate a total refund of Rs 1.15 crore to affected students, the minister said.

The CCPA has been established under Section 10 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, to regulate matters related to the violation of the rights of consumers, unfair trade practices and false or misleading advertisements which are prejudicial to the interest of the public and consumers to promote, protect and enforce the rights of the consumers as a class.

The minister also said that the Department of Consumer Affairs is continuously working for consumer protection and empowerment of consumers by the enactment of progressive legislations. With a view to modernising the framework governing consumer protection in the new era of globalisation, technologies, e-commerce markets etc., the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, was repealed and the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, was enacted.

/IANS