Dhaka, Sept 12 (UNB) – The ‘Standards of Weights and Measures Bill, 2018’, was placed in Parliament on Wednesday, aiming to achieve international standard in maintaining weight and measurement of products.
Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu placed the Bill and it was sent to the respective Parliamentary Standing Committee for further scrutiny.
The Committee was asked to submit its report within 15 working days.
About the crimes and punishment under the proposed law, without prior approval from the government, anyone using non-standard weights will be awarded maximum six months jail or maximum Tk 20,000 fine instead of six months of jail or Tk 3,000 fine under the existing law.
Besides, there is a provision in the draft law to award one year jail term or fine Tk one lakh for non-standard weights and measurements.
Anyone found involved in changing the working standards of the weights and measures will be awarded maximum two years of imprisonment or fined Tk 50,000.
Apart from this, a provision is also there for maximum one year of imprisonment or Tk 50,000 as fine for producing non-standard weights and measures for the purpose of export.
For the purpose, the original Standard of Weights and Measures Ordinance 1982 has been translated into Bangla and modified through incorporating the issues related with the international organisations such as Asia Pacific Meteorology Programme (APMP), International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electro-technical Commission (IEC).
Besides, the issues related to Codex Alimentarius Commission, South Asia Regional Standards Organisation (SARSO), International Bureau of Weights and Measures and the International Organisation of Legal Meteorology were also incorporated in the draft law.
