The Energy Commission has begun enforcement of Legislative Instrument (LI) 2353, passed in 2017 to regulate the kinds of Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamps that are imported into the country.
The enforcement will ensure that LED lamps in the market space meet the standard accepted by the Energy Commission in ensuring energy efficiency.
Prior to its enforcement, the commission, last year, put in a request through the Ghana Community Network Services (GC Net), prompting importers of all lighting equipment to obtain approval.
They were to take samples of their products to the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) for testing and subsequently submit a test report to the commission afterwards for approval.
However, as an alternative measure to facilitate trade and avoiding any delay on the products that had already arrived, the commission had opted to clear them under detention.
What this means is that the products cannot be used until their status of meeting the acceptable requirement has been verified by the GSA and the commission.
Should the results show they have met the standard, the importer will pay the enforcement fee for the labels to be affixed on them. However, if the testing result shows otherwise, the LI 2353 makes provision for the products to be re-exported.
Speaking to the Goldstreet Business, the Inspector in-charge of Energy Efficiency at the Energy Commission, Mr. Hubert Zan said his outfit will do a follow up on the list of importers who have put in the details of their test report to the commission.
“We have compiled a list of all those importers who put in the request from last year and do the follow up to find out how many of them have taken their samples to the GSA for testing and take up the necessary steps. This week, those who have tested their products are set to bring their report to us for approval”, Mr. Zan noted.
On the other hand, with regards to any importer who fails to comply with the directive, it is expected that the GC Net system will block them.
By Dundas Whigham
