Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Legislature assembled and by the authority of the same:

SECTION 1. Section twenty-seven hundred and thirty-three of the Administrative Code is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

"SEC. 2733. Unlawful possession or use of instrument not sealed before using and not sealed within twelve months from last sealing.—Any person making a practice of buying or selling goods by weight or measure, or of furnishing services the value of which is estimated by weight or measure, who has in his possession without permit any scale, balance, weight, or measure which has not been officially sealed before being used, and any person who uses in any purchase or sale or in estimating the value of any service furnished, any such sealed instrument the license for which has not been duly renewed in accordance with the provisions of section fifteen hundred and twenty-six of the Administrative Code, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred pesos or by imprisonment for not exceeding one year, or by both, in the discretion of the court; but if such scale, balance, weight or measure so used has been officially sealed at some previous time and the seal and tag officially affixed thereto remain intact and in the same position and condition in which they were placed by the official sealer, and the instrument is found not to have been altered or rendered inaccurate but still to be sufficiently accurate to warrant its being sealed without repairs or alteration, such instrument shall, if presented for sealing promptly on demand of any authorized sealer or inspector of weights and measures, be sealed, and the owner, possessor, or user of same shall be subject to no penalty except a surcharge equal to five times the regular fee fixed by law for the sealing of an instrument of its class, this surcharge to be collected and accounted for by the same official and in the same manner as the regular fees for sealing such instruments."

SEC. 2. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved, November 20, 1930.