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Weigh cylinder before buying: CAA warns

03 Jun 2021

By Imsha Iqbal   The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) discovered nearly 10 Litro gas cylinders which weighed less than the marked weight of 12.5 kg during raids on Tuesday (1), The Morning Business learns. Speaking to us, CAA Executive Director Thushan Gunawardena stated that the consumers need to weigh the cylinder prior to purchase in order to ensure that they do not pay more for a cylinder that weighs less. He highlighted that according to the gazette notification that has been issued, each gas dealer should keep a scale at the dealer’s points of sale so that the consumers can weigh and check whether they are buying the right product without being deceived. “Most of the cylinders that we took into custody were short of 100-150 g,” the Executive Director said, noting that the company is deliberately misleading the consumer. “We actually took the Department of Measurements along with us,” he said, emphasising that due to the presence and contribution of the officers of the Department of Measurement Units, Standards, and Services, no space has been left for disputes with regard to the weight of the cylinder in any circumstance.  During an inquiry conducted in a store at Colombo 6, it was revealed that many 12.5 kg cylinders were underweight, and some even weighed 11.2 kg, he said. “It is a straight profit in the bottom line,” said Gunawardena, demonstrating that the aforementioned deceitful act leads to absolute monetary gains for the gas company, as the company is clearly pumping less gas into the cylinder purposely.   The CAA said it is conducting such inquiries in sales-permitted stores and mobile commercial vehicles in order to safeguard the consumer during the time of the travel restrictions that have been imposed in the country till 14 June in order to mitigate the ongoing third wave of the pandemic. Furthermore, the CAA Executive Director said the incident has already been announced to the public through the CAA’s official Facebook page (CAASriLanka). “We (the CAA) are going to file a separate case on this,” he added, indicating that the CAA is going to legal action against the companies selling underweight gas cylinders. This would be apart from Litro Gas Lanka Ltd. (LGL), which issued a new gas product with a capacity of 18 litres (18 L) that it dubbed as “Premium Hybrid”, without informing the CAA earlier this year. With regard to the CAA Act No. 9 of 2003, Gunawardena said that the mentioned gas company has breached multiple Sections of the (CAA) Act, namely Section 31, he added, explaining the severity of the matter.  He said: “There are multiple violations in terms of that (selling underweight cylinders); I can quote Section 13, Section 18, Section 31, and Section 32,” he said, adding that erasing the markings of the gas cylinder was also a concern. Explaining further, he said: “They’ve tried to grind the edge of the can, which is in complete disregard to the law.” He concluded saying that the CAA is also keeping an eye on Laugfs Gas, as it too has introduced an 18 L cylinder to the market without the approval of the CAA.  


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