Government moves to confiscate fake weighing scales

LIRA. To protect consumers, Uganda National Bureau of Statistic (UNBS) has said they will confiscate, destroy defective, fraudulent, unregistered and un-calibrated weighing scales on the market as well as impose penalties on violators.
UNBS principal public relations officer Godwin Bonge Muhwezi, last week, said in line with the weighing measures Act, the agency is carrying out regular market inspections to protect consumers from being cheated.
He said the move is to ascertain whether the weighing scales on the market are accurate and measure the right quantity.
The crackdown is done after every six months.
“We carry out regular market inspections country wide to ascertain that the weighing scales in the market are not cheating the consumers,” Mr Muhwezi said.
He added the compliant weighing scales are issued with UNBS stickers, indicating approval.
Mr Nelson Kagoda, a weighing scale technician in Lira District, said traders spoil the scales intentionally to cheat customers. He added that traders use coins to tighten the spring inside the scale.
“They open the seals and put coins inside the spring in order to tighten the spring. All this is to cheat the consumers because the reading might start from 0.3 instead of 00,” Mr Kagoda said.
However, Mr Kagoda explained that before UNBS stamps the scale, they are brought to them to verify using a standard test weights.
He further said there are scales that are not allowed in trade by UNBS, but can only be used domestically, especially in weighing poultry feeds and other related inputs.