Bishwo Babu Pudasaini, director general of the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology, said that the amendment would bring uniformity according to international standards.

The bill has defined measuring units according to international standards as recommended by the General Assembly of Measurement and Weight. The bureau had prepared a preliminary draft at the end of 2017.

As per the proposed piece of legislation, there will be a central lab for measurement and weight at the bureau, and it will provide all services and do research work.

Businesses are required to use measuring and weighing machines that have been stamped by the inspectors. Commercial distribution and sale of unstamped measures and weights is prohibited.

Traders and vendors must register their names by paying a prescribed fee and obtain a licence from the inspector to use measures and weights or measuring and weighing machines.

The fine for giving short measure has been increased from Rs1,000 to Rs25,000 for first time offenders, and to Rs25,000-Rs50,000 for a second offence and Rs100,000 for a third offence.

Manufacturing, repairing or selling commercial measuring or weighing machines without obtaining a permit from the inspector is forbidden.

Madhav Timilsina, president of the Consumer Rights Investigation Forum said that the act was outdated and that the amendment was essential as the prices of goods have increased by many folds since then.

The amendment will finally bring the Standard Measurement and Weight Act up to international standards where fraudulent traders will be flagged for action, Timilsina added.

Packaged goods such as rice, edible oil, gas cylinders were regularly weighed by machines that did not meet the standards set by the bureau.

The department is tasked with regulating measuring devices at petrol pumps, gas depots and factories. They then issue an official seal once the device meets the required standard.

Last year, many petrol pumps in Kathmandu were fined for tampering with the official seal to cheat customers and the department fined the errant pumps’ owners Rs30,000.

The department said that they have been conducting market inspections and taking actions against traders and firms that cheat customers by not providing the actual quantity of goods they paid for.