Friday, January 03, 2014: Electronics goods importers in India want the government to extend the deadline of safety certification norms further as they are unable to meet the deadline of 3 January. The deadline has been extended twice earlier and the industry is unsure whether the government will be giving another reprieve in this case. If the deadline is not extended further, it could lead to a halt of imports of goods listed for certifications by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
According to a Business Line report, Anwar Shirpurwala, executive director with Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT), said, “We have requested for an extension as the pace of registration is slow. Imports of electronic products, which are still under the process of registration and testing, could come to a halt.”
Shirpurwala highlighted that the registrations, which are a part of the process of issuing BIS certifications picked up pace only in the last three weeks. However, BIS is committed to grant registration for all the listed products before the deadline.
It is worth mentioning here that the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) had made the compliance of BIS certifications mandatory for all the imported electronic goods. The aim is to curb the flow of sub-standard electronic products into the country. A few of those sub-standard products could also lead to safety hazards. This is the first time Indian government has taken such a stringent stance, which is much similar to the international standards.
The deadline to get electronic goods BIS certified has already been extended twice from the original 3 July to 3 October and further to 3 January, due to repeated requests from the industry.
The government has identified 15 items including laptops, tablets, TV sets, microwave ovens, printers, scanners, set top boxes and wireless keyboards for the certifications.
