Govt yet to approve BIS certificates for 160 Chinese toy companies

The delay has been mainly due to the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in China

The government is yet to issue quality certificates to around 160 Chinese toy companies to export to India, Pramod Kumar Tiwari, director general of the Bureau of Indian Standards, said on Friday.
 
The delay was mainly because of the disruptions caused by the resurgence of Covid-19 infections in China. BIS certification was made mandatory for import and sale of toys from January 2021 to curb the sale of substandard products.
 
Over the past three-four days, the BIS conducted raids at major airports and shopping malls to check the illegal import of Chinese toys. Toys from China were being sold without BIS certification or fake licences were being used, Tiwari told reporters.
 
“No company from China has been given a BIS licence (since 2021). In case you get to see Made in China toys, please inform BIS…If any Made in China toy is available (in any store), you can be sure that it is illegal (has come in without licence),” Tiwari said.
 
At present, the government has issued BIS licences to 982 domestic manufacturers and 29 foreign toymakers. Companies from Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and some European countries have been granted licences.
 
In the past few years, the government has taken a series of steps to curb imports of toys into India as a large proportion of these were found to be unsafe, substandard, or counterfeit.
 
Some of the measures introduced were a hike in Customs duty from 20 per cent to 60 per cent, implementation of a Quality Control Order, mandatory sample testing of imported toys, granting more than 850 BIS licences to domestic toy manufacturers, development of toy clusters, among others.
 
As a result, toy imports reduced by 70 per cent to $110 million in financial year 2021-22 (FY22).