PIB: Trade Ministry flays takeover of Weights and Measures Dept functions

The Ministry of Trade and Investment has rejected some provisions of the passed Petroleum Industry Bill which ceded some functions of the Weights and Measures Department of the ministry to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

In a memorandum on the bill seen by Daily Trust, the ministry said this violates the

Constitution of Nigeria and the Weights and Measures Act which empower the ministry to regulate and enforce issues of weights and measures in the economy, including the oil and gas sector.

It listed the functions taken away from the Weights and Measures Department as including verification, fiscalization, calibration and certification of all measuring instruments used in the petroleum industry; quantity determination of petroleum and gas products for trade purposes and issuance of pattern of approval certification for measuring instruments used in the petroleum industry.

The ministry said taking these functions away from Weights and Measures department would make its activities become extinct.

The ministry said this contravened the provisions of the item 65 Exclusive List, the Second Schedule of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Weights and Measures Act 2004 and the Pre-shipment Inspection for Export Act Cap p25 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

“These laws evidently recognize Weights and Measures as an indispensable economic activity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria towards attaining its fiscal goals and implementation of the attendant fiscal policies,” the ministry said.

The ministry recommended the expunging of what it called offensive sections.

It also requested that the power of issuing permits for crude oil, petroleum products and gas be conferred on the Minister of Trade and Investment as provided by Section 4 of the Export Prohibition Order of 1950.