Beauty parlour business growing fast sans regulation, monitoring

Beauty parlour services in the country are expanding fast without proper regulations and monitoring by the government agencies, thus risking health hazards, insiders have said.

As the services have become popular, many new entrepreneurs are entering the businesses without enough skills. The insiders alleged that the newcomers often use substandard cosmetics and hazardous chemicals.

Due to absence of a proper guideline for the growing sector, they further said, both the customers and service providers sometimes face untoward incidents.

Keeping this in view, the leading beauticians now feel the need for a guideline to be framed by the government agencies concerned to ensure better transparency in the sector.

To this effect, leaders of Beauty Service Owners Association of Bangladesh (BSOAB) recently held a meeting with the officials of Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) at the latter's office.

The necessity of framing such guideline came up for discussion after some operators in the city were fined by several government agencies, including the DNCRP and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

Contacted, BSOAB Vice President Geetee Billah said the sector is now facing some crisis following the recent drives as the number of customers fell sharply.

"They (DNCRP) conducted the drives all on a sudden. How they can oversee us without a specific set of rules for operating such business?" she raised the question.

The sector should be provided with a guideline before monitoring their activities so that the entrepreneurs can correct their mistakes, added Ms Geetee, who is said to be the pioneer of the professional beauty service provider.

The customers often raise allegation that many parlours operated by the unskilled people use counterfeit or hazardous ingredients, she said.

BSOAB president Kaniz Almas Khan said the watchdog fined some organisations without concrete evidences of irregularities.

"We couldn't have reached this position as big brands if we were using harmful cosmetics," said Ms Khan, Managing Director of Persona Hair and Beauty Limited.

There were neither fake nor date-expired products, but the magistrates fined some parlours as there was no information about date expiry and import, she said.

The ingredients used in parlours are bought in large containers tagged with the information about products details, she explained, adding that the staffs use the cosmetics from smaller pots for the convenience of work.

There were no irregularities, but there might have some misunderstandings, she added.

Ms Khan also said the parlours under the BSOAB contribute to the national exchequer by paying taxes.

The beauty service providers pay Value Added Tax (VAT) at the rate of 16 per cent to the government, sources said.

Sources said the beauty parlor business started growing in the country in the early 1980s. Now the service is spreading fast beyond the major cities like Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet.

The BSOAB Vice-president Farzana Shakil said there has been no formal set of rules for operating a beauty salon in the country and, as a result misunderstandings occur.

"We have to depend on the importers and suppliers for procuring a large bulk of cosmetics," she said, adding that it is the suppliers' responsibility to follow the government rules related to consumers' rights.

If the sector is provided with a guideline by the government, the stakeholders can follow them to avoid any confusion, she added.

During the recent meeting with the DNCRP, the BSOAB leaders submitted a written statement explaining their stance. They urged the government not to term tag-less cosmetics 'fake' without conducting laboratory tests.

"We believe, the government policy should be framed in accordance with the category of sector and products," the meeting was told.

It was also pointed out at the meeting that said the annual market size of the beauty service business would be around Tk 5.0 billion.

Sources said there are nearly 15,000 parlors across the country with over 0.15 million employees.

Deputy Director for the Dhaka divisional office of the DNCRP Monjur Mohammad Shahriar said that during the meeting top beauticians discussed about the recent drives, policy gaps, shortcomings in the sector and way forward.

Mr Shahriar, a deputy secretary, acknowledged that women entrepreneurs have brought the beauty parlour businesses at present situation after a long struggle.

"With the support of all stakeholders, we expect the sector will get a formal shape to ensure consumers' rights," he said.