Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection

department · verified (verified 2026-05-17)

Profile

Head: Farooq Ahmed
Role: Director General
Annual budget: —
Staff: —
Established: 2009
Legal basis: Consumers' Rights Protection Act, 2009 (Act No. XXX of 2009), enacted by the Parliament of Bangladesh; the Directorate was established as the field-level implementation arm under Section 5 of the Act, with the National Consumer Rights Protection Council providing policy guidance

DNCRP is in an intensive enforcement phase spanning Ramadan 2026 (February-March) and a post-Ramadan edible oil and LPG crackdown (April 2026), both driven by government directives to stabilise essential-commodity prices. Its most documented recent track is physical market surveillance (6,573 establishments fined Tk 3.94 crore in the three months to November 2025; 21-district simultaneous drives; Magura district fine in March 2026). The directorate also maintains a rising e-commerce enforcement caseload: over 12,000 online complaints received in 2023 alone, with precedent e-commerce fines (Daraz, Shohoz, Chaldal) establishing a practised enforcement template under the 2009 Act and the Digital Commerce Operational Guidelines 2021. Institutional constraints include overlapping jurisdiction with BTRC and Bangladesh Bank on digital-commerce disputes, and a long-standing capacity gap relative to complaint volumes.

Recent activity

2026-02-18 regulation Ahead of Ramadan 2026 (beginning late February), DNCRP announced a special drive in wholesale markets to control prices of essential commodities; Bangladesh Pratidin reported Ramadan market control as the biggest enforcement test for DNCRP that season, with focus on edible oil, sugar, lentils, chickpeas, and dates. ↗↗
2026-03-01 regulation DNCRP launched Ramadan market drives across multiple districts; the DNCRP Magura district office fined a shop named 'Messrs Deshi Vindeshi' Tk 50,000 at Syed Atar Ali Road, Magura Sadar, for selling products falsely labelled as foreign (Pakistani) origin without supporting documents, in violation of the Consumers' Rights Protection Act 2009. ↗↗
2026-04-01 regulation Ministry of Commerce mobilised DNCRP and all Deputy Commissioners for a coordinated nationwide crackdown on overpricing of edible oil and LPG cylinders; RAB conducted parallel mobile-court drives, seizing over 1.42 lakh litres of hoarded edible oil and imposing fines; DNCRP's mandate to enforce government-mandated retail price ceilings was the central enforcement mechanism. ↗↗
2025-11-15 regulation DNCRP fined 6,573 business establishments a combined Tk 3.94 crore over a three-month period (roughly August-November 2025) for violations including selling above posted prices, absence of price lists, adulteration, and short-weighting; drives covered essential items: potatoes, vegetables, eggs, broiler chicken, lentils, onions, garlic, ginger, and edible oil. ↗↗
2025-11-20 regulation DNCRP stepped up market monitoring by conducting simultaneous drives in 21 districts, deploying 32 enforcement teams and fining 61 businesses Tk 4,70,500; operations targeted key essential-item supply chains from producers to retailers. ↗↗
2021-08-01 regulation DNCRP fined 17 e-commerce platforms a combined ~Tk 6 lakh for consumer-rights violations including non-delivery of ordered goods, failure to post price lists, and false advertising; Daraz Bangladesh received the highest individual fine of Tk 3,23,000; Shohoz was fined Tk 68,000 and Chaldal Tk 25,000. Shohoz subsequently filed a writ challenging the DNCRP fine. By 2023 DNCRP was receiving over 12,000 online-commerce complaints annually, underpinning an active e-commerce enforcement track that has continued into 2025-26. ↗↗↗

Provenance & notes

DNCRP was established in 2009 as the field implementation arm of the Consumers' Rights Protection Act 2009 (Act No. XXX). It is a quasi-judicial department under the Ministry of Commerce (NOT Ministry of Public Administration, despite some older references), with headquarters in Dhaka and offices at every division and district. The National Consumer Rights Protection Council (chaired by the Commerce Minister) provides policy guidance; DNCRP executes at field level. Director General Farooq Ahmed (rank: Additional Secretary) is confirmed as the current head from the official DNCRP portal officer list; exact appointment date not verifiable from accessible public sources. The complainant-incentive mechanism (25% of realised fine) is a distinctive enforcement feature verified on the DNCRP portal. E-commerce enforcement precedent (17 firms fined, Shohoz writ) is verified from The Daily Star and TBS; the 12,000+ annual complaint figure is from a peer-reviewed IJRISS article (2025). head_since is set null because no primary-source date for Farooq Ahmed's appointment was found; should be updated when verified. staff_count and annual_budget_bdt are not publicly disclosed in any accessed source.

Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection

Profile

Recent activity

Sources