Govt extends deadline for BIS certification of electronic goods

The government has extended the deadline for electronic manufacturing companies to submit their products for certification by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to 3 January 2014, thereby allowing these companies to sell their products in the market in the interim till they secure the BIS certification.

Accordingly, the department of electronics and information technology (DeitY) will continue to provide provisional clearance to the manufacturers and importers to sell goods and to obtain registration up to 3 January 2014, an official release said on Monday.

DeitY had, in a review meeting held on 26 September 2013, decided to extend the facility for provisional clearance from 3 October 2013 till 3 January 2014.

The decision has been made taking into consideration the compliance status on date and the availability of goods in the festive season ahead, the release said.

''Registration letter (of application) issued by BIS shall suffice for the purpose of clearance of such consignments by Customs / Excise till January 3, 2014.

However, the needed markings shall be placed by the manufacturer/ local representatives of the manufacturing units before placing such goods into markets,'' DeitY said in its web site announcement.

DeitY has clarified that this extension will be available only to manufacturing units that submit their products for testing to BIS recognised labs as per the provision of the Compulsory Registration Scheme.

In order to further facilitate smooth implementation of the BIS registration process, labelling of the registered products has also been allowed for the time being at the warehouses of the importers / manufacturers.

However, the Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT) and many companies are demanding another extension of at least six months because the BIS was not able to handle the volume of products for testing.

Lack of adequate number of BIS recognised labs in the country has been holding up the entire BIS registration process ever since the government came out with the mandatory safety requirements tags on the products a year ago.

Till now, some 200 registrations have been issued out of 325 applications (each application carrying request for three-four products to be certified).

The three months extension itself is great relief to electronic firms as it would help import products during the festival season.

The 'Electronics and Information Technology Goods (Requirements for Compulsory Registration) Order, 2012' mandates compliance to Indian Safety Standards for 15 notified categories of electronic goods such as video games, laptop / notebook / tablets, plasma / LCD / LED TVs, optical disc players, microwave ovens, visual display units, printers / plotters, scanners, wireless keyboards, telephonic answering machines, amplifiers, electronic musical systems, electronic clocks, set top box and automatic data processing machines.

In addition to these 15 products notified, the Government last month has also added new products such as projectors and servers to be BIS certified before coming to markets.