Friday, April 04, 2014: In a major blow to electronics industry, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has issued new regulations for the labeling requirements that companies have to follow under the certification process for imports. As per the new norms, BIS has made amendments in the way labels are prepared and printed on the product packaging material.
IT hardware companies would now be required to label products with a certification tag before importing them. Unlike earlier wherein companies used to label their products through stickers, they would now have to screen print, emboss or engrave the certification statement onto the product and printed on the packaging material. However, companies are slamming the authorities, terming the move as impractical and expensive.
BIS had announced the new labeling requirements on March 25, 2014, and has said that it would come into effect by April 04, 2014.
The most affected categories will be printers, scanners, wireless keyboards, set-top boxes and microwave ovens. The new BIS regulations will demand companies to do away with stickers and shift to screen-prints certification on product packaging.
The prices on available products like laptops, notebooks, tablets and televisions will most likely be escalating after the implementation of theses new norms. However, what will further trouble product makers is stamping the information on the product that is not a feasible option, since it will add a design-structure execution and may lead to production delays.
The new regulations will have electronics companies screen-print (emboss or engrave) the certification and compliances on the product as well as on the packaging. Presently, companies mention the certification and compliance by putting an information carrying stickers on each product.
According to a TOI report, big firms like Lenovo, Panasonic, Sony, and Videocon have already appealed to the government. Anwar Shirpurwala, director of MAIT, said, “Most of the IT companies are changing their models so fast that it has become a common practice to use stickers rather than have them screen-printed, embossed or engraved. Products are manufactured in multiple factories and production cycles are constantly shifting. Preparing tooling for ’embossed or engraved’ in a multiple-factory setting would be time consuming and extend timelines drastically.”
The report says that the new labelling mandates the declaration to be displayed at a “prominent location” with font size of 12, or 1/4th of the size of the brand name (whichever is smaller). While, the least font size must be six.
