Plea to make barcoding must

The Retailers Association of India (RAI) will put forth a proposal to the Centre this week to bring in regulatory changes to enforce implementation of barcodes.

Gibson Vedamani, chief executive officer, RAI said, "A panel comprising RAI, ECR and GS1 will be approaching the Ministry of Consumer Affairs as well as the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to bring in some changes to make the use of standard barcodes a must for all suppliers.There is a certain amount of discipline if it comes from the government."

He added that introducing barcodes would mean increased safety for consumers as it would not be possible to tamper with prices under this system.

It would also reduce time spent in billing as well as make it easier to replenish out of stock products. Apart from this, it would also make data sharing easier. This would enable companies track valuable information on consumer preferences.

The RAI had said in December 2005 that after July 2006, retailers would stop accepting products which did not carry barcodes.

Vedamani said that about 80 per cent of the suppliers had already complied with this, and that they were talking to the smaller suppliers through the retailers.

In addition to this, RAI is planning a series of roadshows over the next two months to increase awareness about barcoding along with written communication like brochures etc.

As regards fresh produce like fruit etc, Vedamani said that the store would be responsible for putting the barcodes on the products.

Similarly for products bought in bulk packs by the retailer, it was up to him to barcode the products before putting them on the shelves.

He mentioned that some companies were already putting on barcodes on products for the export markets but not for products sold in India, so for them it would not be too difficult to switch to barcodes.