Companies that have submitted their products to BIS-recognised labs before July 3, 2013, but for which test reports are not yet available, will be exempted till October 2013 from paying a fee of Rs 25,000 for each application per month, till the submission of the test report
By Richa Chakravarty
Tuesday, July 09, 2013: Speculation within the industry about a further extension of the July 3 deadline to get safety certificates from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for 15 categories of electronics and IT products has been put to rest. A senior official of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) confirmed that the government has not extended the deadline. However, through a new notification dated July 2, 2013, DeitY has made a minor change in the previous order, giving some respite to the industry.
No extension of deadline
DeitY has not changed the deadline given in its earlier notification released in March this year, according to which, the Electronics and IT Goods (Requirement of Compulsory Registration) Order 2012 came into effect on July 3, 2013. In this notification, an additional extension of three months, that is, till October 3, 2013, had been provided to manufacturing units under three categories:
A) Those companies that submit their requests to register their products with BIS with complete test reports from BIS-recognised labs before July 3, 2013, will be allowed an extension till October 3, 2013, for full compliance with the order.
B) Those companies that submit their products to BIS-recognised labs before July 3, 2013, but for which test reports are not yet available, will be levied a fee of Rs 25,000 for each application, each month, till they submit their requests to register their products with BIS, along with complete test reports.
C) Those companies that do not submit their products to BIS-recognised labs before July 3, 2013, will be levied a fee on a per month basis at three times the rate mentioned above till they submit their samples for testing, and thereafter will be levied a fee on a per month basis at specified rates till they submit their requests for registration to BIS with complete test reports.
Only a fee exemption
Through the July 2, 2013, notification, DeitY has, however, made a minor change in the Category B mentioned earlier, while making no changes in Categories A and C. The partial modification in Category B is that manufacturing units will now be given a respite as they do not have to pay the fee mentioned in Category B. But these companies have to comply to IECEE CB certification standards. According to a senior DeitY official from the standards division, IECEE CB is a worldwide testing compliance certificate. “Our objective is neither to penalise the companies nor gain money through fees. This notification has been introduced with an objective that no junk, hazardous or low quality product is available in the market. Though IECEE CB does not match Indian standards, yet complying to this standard is an assurance of conformity to global testing and certification standards,” the official added.
‘Inadequate infrastructure is a false excuse’
The industry, led by the Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT) has been raising a hue and cry about the shortage of BIS-certified labs and the delay in testing products at these labs. However, according to the senior DeitY official of the standards division, there is adequate infrastructure to support all testing and certification requirements. DeitY has recently updated its website, confirming the current number and capacity of labs in India.
Informs the DeitY official, “Not only do we have adequate labs but there are some labs that are underutilised. One of the internationally approved labs in Kolkata has just four jobs in hand.”
According to DeitY, around 900 products have been tested so far and about 700-800 are pending. “We have nine labs recognised to carry out these certification processes and as per our estimates, these 800 products can be tested and certified in a month, whereas companies have time till October, which is easily achievable.”
Six manufacturing units, including Samsung, Sony and a Chinese company, have got their products successfully tested and have procured BIS certification for most of their product categories.
