The Compulsory Registration Order (CRO): A scheme to curb poor quality electronic products

The supply of low cost and low quality electronic items has a long-term adverse effect on quality-conscious manufacturers in India, as well as on Indian consumers. In order to take care of this issue, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeiTY), under the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications, has started the Compulsory Registration Order (CRO) scheme

By EB Bureau

As a part of the National Policy on Electronics (NPE), standards are being developed and mandated by the government of India to:

• Provide Indian consumers with the right to enjoy world class goods
• Upgrade the quality of domestic products in order to bring in global competitiveness
• Develop a strategy to stop the dumping of non-compliant goods
• Project a positive image internationally as a country that produces quality electronic and IT goods

In the ‘Electronics and Information Technology Goods (Requirement for Compulsory Registration) Order, 2012’ DeitY has placed certain categories of electronic items under the Compulsory Registration Scheme of the Department of Consumer Affairs, and these items will have to comply with Indian safety standards. This scheme came into effect on July 3, 2013. The goods in this category are listed in this article. Details of the various clarifications issued on the subject are also provided.

The government has also approved a scheme to provide assistance for setting up laboratories to test electronic goods under the approved order. The details of the scheme and the application form are provided below. The order envisages organisations, importers, sellers and distributors of the notified goods, to conform to the specified standards and get a registration number from BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards), after getting tested by BIS recognised labs.

Main features of the scheme
The regulation is to create an institutional framework to continuously review, update and implement standards in electronics. Its main features can be summarised as follows:

• Applicable to both domestic organisations and importers, uniformly.
• Those in the industry need to get their goods tested at laboratories recognised by BIS. On meeting the requisite standards, BIS grants the tested item a unique registration number. Products need to have all details about the tests marked on them, as follows: “Self Declaration-Conforming to IS…” followed by the registration no. XXXX. The standard number should be followed by its year of publication, separated with a colon. For example “Self Declaration-Conforming to IS 13252:2010” followed by the registration no. XXXX
• Each registration is valid for two years and gets renewed merely on request, if no adverse issues come up during the period of registration.
• Since electronic products have many versions with minor changes in configuration, getting approval for a series of products is possible. Different configurations falling within the same series can be approved based on testing a representative sample from the series. The guidelines for series approval are available on the website of DeitY.
• Initial registration, renewal and lab recognition are handled by BIS.
• Surveillance and series guidelines are handled by DeitY.
• Testing is carried out by BIS-recognised labs.

Registration process
Step 1: Determine the applicability of the order on the products manufactured, imported or being traded by you. Goods notified are listed in the ‘schedule’ of the order, which can be accessed at https://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/NotificationStandards.pdf
Step 2: Select a BIS recognised lab that can test your product. The list of labs, along with their scope, is available under the Lab link at https://www.bis.org.in/lab/osl.HTML
Step 3: Approach the selected lab and complete all the paperwork like submitting the Service Request Form (SRF), samples, technical documentation, etc, and obtain a probable date of completion (PDC) from the lab.
Step 4: Collect the test report on completing the tests, and ensure that this report is duly complete in all respects.
Step 5: Initiate the registration process by registering yourself at the BIS online portal as mentioned in http://www.bis.org.in/cert/RegOverviev.asp, and submit the application for product registration as per the instructions therein.