Members of the parliamentary Standing Committee on Economy and Trade have started scrutinising a new bill that seeks to address cases of inaccurate measurement which might be causing losses to some people while making others get undue benefits.

The proposed bill follows the Rwanda Quality Policy adopted by Cabinet on November 19, 2018, which provides for the establishment of a legislative framework for public and private metrology services to ensure equitable utilisation of measurement in trade, law enforcement, health service, environmental management and industries.

In addition, it seeks to promote trade based on internationally recognised measurements.

Raymond Murenzi, Director-General of Rwanda Standards Board (RSB), told the committee that some people use inaccurate measures because of lack of knowledge, while others – and in most cases – do it intentionally to cheat buyers.

"For instance, an assessment that RSB carried out about nine months ago indicated that 70 per cent of cooking gas sold in cylinders were not full, which means that consumers paid for more than what they got,” Murenzi said.

However, sometimes traders also give excess products because of imprecise measurements which make them incur losses.

"You could find a petrol station agent giving 5.5 litres instead of 5 litres paid by a client. That petrol station might face a loss in a short time because of inexact gauge,” he said.

Murenzi said that the bill is comprehensively tackling standards in the system of measurement, pointing out that measurement equipment will undergo regular scrutiny to ascertain whether there are accurate.

Meanwhile, the bill proposes punishments consisting of fines ranging from Rwf500,000 and Rwf5 million depending on the gravity of the offence.

The provisions of this draft law shall be implemented by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Rwanda Standards Board and other concerned organs.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com