As we've told you, it will soon be the law that every company that sells butane will have to have a scale, both on their trucks and at the depot.
That's because the controlled price of butane is based on weight, specifically a hundred pound cylinder.
But - with butane prices so high - less and less people have hundred pound tanks, and very few can afford to buy full tanks. So most people buy, what you'd call, "lee-bit, lee-bit" a few gallons, and a few dollars at a time.
But then, how do you convert those gallons to pounds? And, between gallons and pounds, how do you know you're not still being ripped off?
Well, the good news is that - according to the Bureau of Standards, when the new law goes into effect - which is in 30 days - butane will be sold by pounds only. At the current controlled price ceiling of $128.00 per hundred pound cylinder, the price would be a maximum of ($1.28 ) one-dollar, twenty-eight cents per pound in the city.
But until then, Butane is still sold by the gallon. And as we told you, four and a half gallons is equal to one pound.
Yes, unless you have "calculator brains", it is a little confusing, but when the new Statutory Instrument comes into effect, and the unit of sale is switched over to pounds, that should be simplified. The new S.I. will not take effect until 30 days after it is gazetted; it is expected to be gazetted next week.
