The House of Representatives at its plenary session of Tuesday, November 22nd 2016, passed for second reading a Bill titled “A Bill for an Act to make provisions for a System of Standard Scale of Fines and Financial Penalties Imposed by Courts, Tribunal and Other Statutory Instruments and for other matters connected thereto“. According to the Bill sponsor, Hon. Razak Atunwa (APC: Kwara) the standard scale is a system whereby financial criminal penalties(fines) in legislation have maximum levels set against a standard scale. His justification is that when inflation makes it necessary to increase the level of fines, the legislature would simply amend the scale rather than every individual piece of legislation with amounts stated therein.
Hon. Atunwa enumerated some of the advantages of having a standard scale system mentioning that its use would avoid tedious repetitive amendments and eliminate the possibility of an Act being out of date on account of the inadequacy of the fine. He also gave an example of a Standard Scale (as shown below) and illustrated how the proposed law on a system of standard offences and financial penalties would be provided for in the legislation.
| Level on Scale | Amount of Fine |
| 1 | N25,000 |
| 2 | N50,000 |
| 3 | N100,000 |
| 4 | N250,000 |
| 5 | N500,000 |
| 6 | N1,000,000 |
| 7 | N5,000,000 |
| 8 | N10,000,000 |
| 9 | N25,000,000 |
| 10 | N100,000,000 |
Hon. Atunwa further illustrated the application of the scale by given a practical example of the current provisions of Section 47 (1) of the Compulsory Registration Act which provides that;
” If a person forges or falsifies any certificate, declaration or order under this Act, or knowingly uses or gives or sends to any person as genuine any false or forged certificate, declaration or order for the purposes of this Act, he shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine of N200 or imprisonment for a term of six months or to both such fine and imprisonment”.
Hon. Atunwa said that the reference in the amended legislation would read:
If a person forges or falsifies any certificate, declaration or order under this Act, or knowingly uses or gives or sends to any person as genuine any false or forged certificate, declaration or order for the purposes of this Act, he shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the Standard Scale or imprisonment for a term of six months or to both such fine and imprisonment”.
The House unanimously agreed to his debate and the Bill referred to the Committee on Justice for further legislative input.
