The Government of India has made random sampling of imported light-emitting diodes (LED) and control gears for LED products mandatory. This notification was issued by DGFT
Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has made the random testing on LED Lights and control gears for LED products imported in India. The randomly picked up samples will be sent to Bureau of Indian Standards(BIS) for testing.
“For the LED products and DC or AC supplied control gears for LED Modules as notified under the “Electronics and Information Technology Goods (Requirement of Compulsory Registration) order 2012″, sample(s) will be picked up on random basis from the randomly selected consignments and will be sent to BIS recognized labs for testing of limited defined non-destructive safety parameters from the IS standard applicable on the product, as identify by MeitY from time to time.” read DGFT’s official note.
Interestingly, China is among the world’s largest exporter of LED lights and raw materials required for making LED lights. During 2014-15, India imported LED lighting products under HS code 9405, worth US$ 222.3 million. China was the largest supplier with a share of 84.76 per cent, followed by Republic of Korea with 5.43 per cent and Hong Kong with 2.4 per cent.
Customs to give clearance
The government had made customs responsible for giving clearance to randomly picked up sample. These clearances will be based on samples matching the requirements of standards.
“Further, for such consignments, clearance would be given by customs to only those consignments where the randomly selected sample has compiled with the requirements of standard for the defined parameters. However, if the sample drawn fails to meet the requirements of standard, such consignment will be sent back or will be destroyed at the cost of importer,” read DGFT’s statement.
According to a report by the Electric Lamp and Component Manufacturers Association (ELCOMA), the Indian LED market is expected to grow to Rs 261 billion by 2020, which is approximately 80 per cent of the total lighting industry.
The Indian LED lighting market stood at US$ 918.70 million in 2016 (TechSci report), and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 24.66 per cent, in value terms, to reach US$ 3.76 billion by 2022, on account of increasing government initiatives to boost LED adoption and growing awareness regarding lower power consumption of LED lighting products.
The major demand-generating application areas include street lighting, residential lighting, office space lighting and industrial lighting.
