Measurement authority expands coverage to three new sectors

• ‘Commercial taxis coming for scrutiny’- Rishad
• Increasing measurement units to one million
• ‘MUSSD safeguards Lankan consumers’- Rishad
• Rs. 1.9 million from 2015 raids

From Left: MP Bandula Gunawardene and Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen listen to Measurement Units, Standards and Services Department Acting Director Premasiri Kumara (second from left) at MUSSD’s new premises in Pitipana, Homagama on 8 December.

Sri Lanka has decided to verify the calibrations used in three new utilities and services in its retail sector.

These new verifications are a first for these three sectors which are largely free of close supervision hitherto said the Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen on 8 December.

The new consumer safeguards are to be implemented by Minister Bathiudeen’s Measurement Units, Standards and Services Department (MUSSD) – the apex institute and the regulatory body in charge of measurements in Sri Lanka.

Minister Bathiudeen was addressing the inauguration event of MUSSD’s relocation at Mahenawatte, Pitipana, Homagama on 8 December. Joining Minister Bathiudeen were MP Bandula Gunawardene and MUSSD Acting Director K. Premasiri Kumara.

“The Measurement Units, Standards and Services Department (MUSSD) is the top institute and the regulatory body in charge of measurements in Sri Lanka,” stressed Minister Bathiudeen and added: “It is in charge of the national measurement system and standards of the country and provides calibration facilities of measuring instruments in industry, establishment including the watt hour meters, pressure meters, weights and scales etc. and also conducts raids. To safeguard consumers, the department is aiming for a target of one million units of verification of weighing and measuring instruments in trade in the future and also plans to verify meters in three new utility sectors – commercial taxis including three wheelers, chemicals and pesticides. These new verifications are a first for the three sectors which have been largely free of close supervision up to now.”

Via the MUSSD, Sri Lanka has become an associate member country of the Paris-based General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM). Under the MUSSD’s Raids program, a total of Rs. 1.9 million fines were collected by September this year.