The IT hardware industry is expecting the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to relax some of the labelling norms that electronic product companies have to follow under the certification process required for imports.
According to people with direct knowledge of the matter, companies are expecting that the BIS will ease some of the labelling requirements it had changed in a surprise move a few months ago.
IT hardware companies such as Samsung and Acer are required to label their products with a certification tag before being allowed to import it into the country.
In its earlier notification in April, the standards body had required companies to “screen print, emboss or engrave” the certification statement onto the product. Until then, most companies simply labelled their products through stickers, which was a much more inexpensive process. The decision to change this was received unfavourably by the industry, with most companies calling it “impractical, expensive and almost impossible to achieve in the time limit given by the BIS to the industry.”
“We have had some good discussions and our input has been taken. They have been understanding of our concerns. Based on the discussions we have had, we believe that it [BIS] may come out a notification that allows the labels to be printed as stickers as another option apart from embossing or engraving,” Anwar Shirpurwala, Executive Director, Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (MAIT), told this correspondent. The BIS has also recently started taking steps to make the compulsory registration order (CRO) process much more industry-friendly by accepting online applications.
According to people with direct knowledge of the matter, the online portal has been constructed and the industry is awaiting a notification to start using it.
