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THE ESSENTIAL
SUPPLIES AND SERVICES ACT
[BURMA ACT XLVII, 1947] (1st August, 1947)
It is hereby enacted as follows: —
1. This Act shall come into force on the first day of
August, 1947, and shall remain in force until the President of
the Union, by notification, directs that it shall cease to be in
force.
2. In this Act, the expression —
(a) "undertaking" means any undertaking by way of trade
or business or to provide any public service;
(b) "cattle" means bulls, bullocks, cows,
calves, buffaloes (male and female) and buffalo calves.
3. The President of the Union may, so far as appears to
him to be expedient for maintaining supplies and services
essential to the life of the community, by order provide—
(1) for regulating or prohibiting the production,
treatment, keeping, storage, movement, transport, distribution,
disposal, acquisition, use or consumption of things of any
description;
and, in particular, for prohibiting the withholding from sale,
either generally or to specified persons, of things kept for
sale, and for requiring things kept for sale to be sold either
generally or to specified persons or classes of persons or in
specified circumstances;
1(1A) for regulating or prohibiting or
restricting the hire or charter of aircraft or for regulating
the loading of, or for prohibiting or restricting the carriage
of goods by, any aircraft;
2(1B) for controlling the use or
disposal of, or dealings in, coin which is legal tender in the
Union of Burma;
3(1C) for regulating or prohibiting the
use, keeping, movement or disposal of animals employed in
connection with any timber industry;
4(1D) for providing or regulating water
supply and environmental sanitation in rural areas;
5(1E) for providing or regulating the
business of taking goods and cattles in pawn for loans of money;
(2) for controlling the prices or rates at which things
of any description may be sold or hired;
(3) for controlling the rates at which any vessel
registered in the Union of Burma may be hired and the rates at
which persons or goods may be carried in or on any such
vessel;
(4) for regulating the letting and sub-letting in any are
of residential accommodation, whether furnished or
unfurnished and whether with or without board, and, in
particular,—
(i) for controlling the rents for such accommodation;
(ii) for preventing the unreasonable eviction of tenants
and sub-tenants from such accommodation; and
(iii) for requiring such accommodation to be let either
generally, or to specified persons or classes of persons, or in
specified circumstances;
(5) for regulating the carrying on of any undertaking
engaged in, or capable of doing, work appearing to the President
of the Union essential to any of the abovementioned purposes,
and, in particular,—
(i) for requiring work to be done by an undertaking;
(ii) for determining the order of priority in which, and
the period or periods within winch, work shall be done by an
undertaking;
(iii) for controlling or fixing the charges which may be
made by the undertakers in respect of the doing of any work by
them;
(iv) for requiring, regulating or prohibiting the
engagement in the undertaking, of any employee or any class of
employees;
(v) for requiring any person or class of persons engaged
in such work to reside in and remain within any place specified
in the order, and to continue to perform such work or such other
work of the same nature as may be directed by an authority
specified in the order;
(vi) for requiring the undertaking to provide adequate
safeguards against sabotage, theft, fire or other accident;
(6) for requiring persons carrying on any undertaking
to keep such books, accounts and records relating to the
undertaking and to employ such accounting and auditing staff,
as may be specified in the order;
Foot Note; 1.
Inserted by Acts XV and XXVI, 1950.
2. Inserted by Act XIV, 1950.
3. Inserted, Act XLIX, 1950.
4. Inserted by Act V, 1953.
5. Inserted by Act II, 1954.
(7) for requiring persons carrying on, or employed in
connection with, any undertaking to produce to such authority as
may be specified in the order any books, accounts or other
documents relating to the undertakings; and for requiring such
persons to furnish to such authority as may be specified in the
order such estimates, returns, or other information relating to
the undertaking as may be specified in the onder or demanded
thereunder;
1(7A) for requiring measures to be
taken, as may be specified therein, by any person or persons for
the purpose of preventing loss of any supplies or money or
valuable securities, belonging to or in the possession or under
the control of or payable to the Civil Supplies Department, and
for empowering any such persons to persons to arrest without
warrant;
(8) for any incidental and supplementary matters for
which the President of the Union thinks it expedient for the
purposes of the order to provide, including, in particular, the
entering and inspection of premises to which the order relates
with a view to securing compliance with the order;
and an order under this Act may prohibit the doing of anything
regulated by the order except under, and in accordance
with the conditions of, a licence granted by such authority as
may be specified in the order, and may be made so as to apply
either to person or undertakings generally or to any particular
person or undertaking or class of persons or undertakings, and
either to the whole or to any part of any undertaking, and so as
to have effect either generally or in any particular
area.
4. It it appears to the president of the
Union that for maintaining supplies and services essential to
the life of the community, it is necessary to exercise control
over the whole or any part of an existing undertaking, the
President of the Union may by order authorized any person (herinafter
referred to as an "authorized controller") to exercise,
with respect to the undertaking or any part thereof specified in
the order, such functions of control as may be provided by the
order, and so long as an order made under this section is in
force with respect to any undertaking or part of an undertaking
—
(1) the authorized controller shall exercise his
functions in accordance with any instructions given to him by
the President of the Union, so, however, that he shall not have
power to give any directions inconsistent with the provisions of
any Act other instrument determining the functions of the
undertakers except in so far as may be specifically provided by
the order; and
(2) the undertaking or the part shall be carried on in
accordance with any directions given by the authorized
controller in accordance with the provisions of the order, and
any person having any functions of management in relation to the
undertaking or part shall comply with any such directions.
5. (1) If in the opinion of the President
of the Union it is expedient so to do for securing the public
safety, the maintenance of public order, or for maintaining
supplies and services essential to the life of the community,
the President of the Union may by order in writing requisition
any animal, product, or thing, and may make such further
orders as appear to the President of the Union to be expedient
in connection with the requisitioning.
Foot Note: 1.
Inserted by Act LXI, 1947.
(2) Where the President of the Union has requisitioned
any animal, product, or ting under sub-section (1), the
President of the Union may use or deal with the animal, product
or thing in such manner as may appear to him to be expedient,
and may acquire it by serving on the owner thereof a notice
stating that the President of the Union has acquired it under
this Act.
Where such notice of acquisition is served on the owner of the
animal, product, or thing, then, at the beginning of the day on
which the notice is served, the animal, product or thing shall
vest in the President of the Union free from any mortgage,
pledge, lien or other similar obligation, and the period of the
requisition thereof shall end.
1(3) Whenever in pursuance of
sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) the President
of the Union requisitions or acquires any animal, product or
thing, the owner thereof shall be paid compensation to such
extent as may be determined in accordance with the provisions
which the President of the Union shall, by special or general
order, prescribe.
(4) The President of the Union may, with a View to the
requisition of any animal, product or thing, or the determining
of the compensation payable in respect of a any animal,
product or thing which has been requisitioned, by order—
(i) require any person to furnish to such authority as
may be specified in the order such information in his possession
relating to the animal, product or thing as may be so specified;
(ii) direct that the owner, ar person in possession, of
the animal, product or thing shall not, without the permission
of the President of the Union, dispose of it till the expiry of
such period as may be specified in the order,
6. The President of the Union may, if in his opinion it
is expedient so to do for the purpose of maintaining supplies
and services essential to the life of the community, by order,
prohibit or restrict, or impose conditions upon, the slaughter
of cattle and sale of meat of cattle in the Union of Burma or in
any area thereof.
7. The President of the Union may by order direct that
any power or duty which is conferred or imposed on him by this
Act shall in such circumstances and under such conditions,
iflany, as may be specified in the direction be exercised or
discharged —
(a) by any officer or authority subordinate to the
President of the Union, or
(b) by any other authority.
8. (1) Whoever contravenes any provision of any
order, or direction issued under any order, made under
sections 3, 4 and 5 of this Act shall be punishable with
imprisonment which may extend to three years, or with fine which
may extend to one thousand rupees, or with both.
2(2) All things in respect if which an
offence punishable under sub-section (1) has been
committed shall be liable to confiscation by order of the Court
trying the offence.
The receptacles, packages and coverings of such things, and the
vessel, vehicle or mens of transport used for the conveyance
thereof shall also be liable to confiscation unless the owner
proves that he had no reason to believe that such an offence was
being or was likely to be committed.
(3) If any person contravenes any order made under
section 6 of this Act, he shall be punishable with
imprisonment for a term which may extend to six month, or with
fine which may extend to two hundred rupees, or with both.
Foot Note: 1.
Substituted by Act XXI, 1953.
2. Amended by Act LXI, 1974,
1(4) In any prosecution under
sub-section (1) relating to a violation of any direction
made under any order issued under section 3, the burden of
proving that he has acquired lawfully, or has come into
authorized possession of an essential commodity, shall lie on
the person in whose possession such commodity is found.
Explanation. — A person shall be deemed to have
acquired or to have come into lawfully, possession of an
essential commodity only if such acquisition or possession is
permitted under a general or special licence issued by the
Commissioner of Civil Supplies or by an officer or officers
authorized by him in his behalf.
29. The following orders shall be deemed to
continue to be in force as if the said orders had been made
under the provisions of this Act: —
(a) The Burma Rationing (Preparatory Measures) Order,
1946.
(b) The Burma Rationing Order, 1946.
(c) The Civil Supplies Order, 1947.
(d) The Paper Control Order, 1947.
(e) The Inland Water Transport Order, 1946.
(f) Compulsory Declaration of Paddy and Rice Stocks
Order, 1946.
3(g) The Road Transport Order, 1947.
10. No suit, prosecution or other proceedings shall be
instituted in any Court against any person or person in respect
of anything in good faith done or intended to be done under the
provisions of this Act or any Order made under this Act.
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