The Consumer Council has heightened its Diwali surveillance as they expect a rise in unscrupulous trading in this busy period.

The Council through its market surveillance has found several traders selling fireworks at misleading prices.

Council Chief Executive Seema Shandil says in some cases, the in-house advertised prices did not match the point-of-sale system price.

The Consumer Watchdog believes that fireworks are already quite expensive for most consumers, and to top it off, some traders are duping them by charging extra.

“Retailers who are involved in selling firecrackers were selling the crackers at different prices. What I mean by different prices is that the price on the shelves was different from the price at the checkout.”

The Council is warning these unscrupulous traders to refrain from such unethical behavior.

“What is more concerning or worrying for us is that this will be the last weekend where people or families will flock out in numbers to buy firecrackers and maybe in a rush they will not check the prices. When they look the prices on the shelf is very low and when they go and check out and they do not check their receipts they might end up paying higher prices for firecrackers.”

Meanwhile, another concern for the Consumer Council is traders selling fireworks labelled in a

foreign language without English translation.