Implementation of BIS Act, 2016

Review of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) activities by the Department of Consumer Affairs is a continuous process and such reviews are carried out through Review Meetings, Management Control Report (MCR) etc. From time to time directions are issued to BIS by the Department of Consumer Affairs to achieve targets related to core activities and to take action for improvement in the areas where such improvement is required.

Some of the important initiatives taken for effective implementation of the BIS Act, 2016 are :

• Notification of new BIS  (Hallmarking)  Regulations,  2018  under  the  Act.  The  Central Government has also notified “Gold jewellery and gold artifacts” and “Silver jewellery and silver artifacts” to be marked with Hallmark.
• The BIS (Conformity Assessment) Regulations, 2018 has been notified under the Act. The Regulations provide for multiple types of simplified conformity assessment schemes including Self Declaration Of Conformity (SDOC) against any standard which will give multiple simplified options to manufacturers to adhere to the standards and get a certificate of conformity, thus improving the “ease of doing business”.
• Penal provisions for better and effective compliance and to enable compounding of offences for violations have been made stringent under the new regulation.
• Guideline for the procedure to be followed by the line Ministries for making the use of a mark under licence or certificate of conformity compulsory, and also procedure for approving and authorizing any other agency, for carrying out conformity assessment activities under Section 16(1) of BIS Act 2016.

On the basis of reviews improvement in core activities of BIS such as Standards Formulation, Certification, Hallmarking, Laboratory Testing, Consumer Affairs and International Cooperation etc. are undertaken. Government has laid emphasis on easy redressal mechanism of complaints, mandatory certification, enhancing consumer confidence through publicity and various other interactive measures.

BIS has been established as the National Standards Body of India under the BIS Act, 2016. The main objectives of BIS is harmonious development of activities of Standardisation, marking and quality certification of goods. The standards and certification scheme of BIS apart from benefitting the consumers and industry also support various public policies especially in areas of product safety, consumer protection, food safety, environment protection, building and construction, etc. New thrust areas identified in standardization are (i) Alternate fuels, (ii) E-mobility, (iii) Medical Devices, (iv) Smart Cities, (v) Digital Technologies (e.g. Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence, BlockChain, etc.) and (vi) New and Renewable energy.

During the year 2018-19, 4218(4082-Domestic + 136-Foreign Manufacturers Certification Scheme) new Licences were granted and 20 new products were brought into the fold of product certification activity. The income for the production certification activity during 2018-19 is Rs.554.10 Crores.

This information was given in a written reply by the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Shri Danve Raosaheb Dadarao in the Lok Sabha today.