Pumpset manufacturers here have urged the Union government to address their concerns before introducing Quality Control Order for pumspets.
A press release from the Southern India Engineering Manufacturers’ Association (SIEMA) and the Scientific and Industrial Testing and Research Centre (Si’Tarc) said that the Union government is “working on a proposal to implement QCO for pumps, making ISI marking mandatory for all pumps sold in India.. SIEMA has also raised the issue of dual certification for BEE and BIS at the highest levels of the government, striving to reach a favourable resolution that minimises the financial burden imposed on the industry by the dual marking process. To reduce the burden on the members going in for BIS and BEE marking, SiTarc has significantly reduced the cost of testing of pumps for its members.”
D. Vignesh, president of SIEMA, told The Hindu on Wednesday that Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) marking is not mandatory now and even some of the large brands sold a few models without ISI marking. Though BEE registration for energy efficiency is based on BIS standards, manufacturers will have to register with both when ISI marking becomes mandatory for any pumpset sold in India. This will increase the costs for the manufacturers.
Pumpset manufacturers have more than 100 models of pumpsets each and the initial fee for BIS registration is ₹5,000 for each model. They will have to spend additional amount for testing, etc. “We have asked the government to give specific standards for a family of pumps so that we do not have to register each model of pumpsets made and also to reduce the initial fee.”
Further, there are only seven laboratories in India identified by BIS to test pumps. There should be more recognised labs in clusters such as Coimbatore and Rajkot, he said.
In the case of special pumps such as slurry or dewatering pumps, there are no standards and most of these are imported, he added.
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