diff --git a/cpp/src/io/orc/reader_impl.cu b/cpp/src/io/orc/reader_impl.cu
index e6db8109bf0..ecc36991eee 100644
--- a/cpp/src/io/orc/reader_impl.cu
+++ b/cpp/src/io/orc/reader_impl.cu
@@ -430,12 +430,15 @@ table_with_metadata reader::impl::read(size_type skip_rows,
     // Remove this once we support Decimal128 data type
     CUDF_EXPECTS((col_type != type_id::DECIMAL64) or (_metadata->ff.types[col].precision <= 18),
                  "Decimal data has precision > 18, Decimal64 data type doesn't support it.");
-    // sign of the scale is changed since cuDF follows c++ libraries like CNL
-    // which uses negative scaling, but liborc and other libraries
-    // follow positive scaling.
-    auto scale =
-      (col_type == type_id::DECIMAL64) ? -static_cast<int32_t>(_metadata->ff.types[col].scale) : 0;
-    column_types.emplace_back(col_type, scale);
+    if (col_type == type_id::DECIMAL64) {
+      // sign of the scale is changed since cuDF follows c++ libraries like CNL
+      // which uses negative scaling, but liborc and other libraries
+      // follow positive scaling.
+      auto const scale = -static_cast<int32_t>(_metadata->ff.types[col].scale);
+      column_types.emplace_back(col_type, scale);
+    } else {
+      column_types.emplace_back(col_type);
+    }
 
     // Map each ORC column to its column
     orc_col_map[col] = column_types.size() - 1;