BIS issued 29 licences to foreign toy manufacturing units, says govt

Sixteen licences were issued to Vietnamese units, four licences to Malaysian units and the rest were issued to Hungary, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Czech Republic

BIS, Bureau of Indian Standards — Under the BIS product certification scheme (scheme-I of schedule-II) of the BIS (Conformity Assessment) Regulations, 2018, licence is granted to manufacturing units to use the standard mark on the product as per the relevant Indian standards.

2 min read Last Updated : Feb 03 2023 | 11:21 PM IST

Twenty-nine licences have been granted to foreign toy manufacturing units in various countries including Hungary and Thailand under Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) foreign manufacturers certification scheme. Vietnamese manufacturers were issued the maximum licences. However, no licence was granted to Chinese units.

Sixteen licences were issued to Vietnamese units, four licences to Malaysian units and the rest were issued to Hungary, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Czech Republic.

In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Union minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ashwini Kumar Choubey said that 3 licences have been granted in financial year 2021-2022 and the remaining 26 in 2022-2023. However, he claimed that no licence has been granted to any unit in China.

Under the BIS product certification scheme (scheme-I of schedule-II) of the BIS (Conformity Assessment) Regulations, 2018, licence is granted to manufacturing units to use the standard mark on the product as per the relevant Indian standards. Accordingly, toy manufacturing units including foreign manufacturing units exporting toys to India are required to obtain a BIS licence for safety of toys.

Since 2021, the safety of toys is under compulsory BIS certification as per the toys (Quality Control) Order, 2020 issued by the ministry of commerce and industry under Section 16 of the BIS Act, 2016.

According to the stated order, it has been made compulsory for toys to conform to the corresponding Indian standards for safety of toys and to bear BIS standard mark under a licence from BIS as per scheme-I of schedule-II of BIS (conformity assessment) Regulations, 2018 and it states that no person shall manufacture, import, distribute, sell, hire, lease, store or exhibit for sale any toys without the ISI mark.

“Quality Control Order for toys came into effect on January 1, 2021 after which search and seizures were conducted by BIS. No information regarding fake/imported toys was available till such time and a quantity of 9565 and 30229 toys were seized during the financial year 2021-2022 (FY22) and FY23 (up to January 25, 2023) respectively,” the reply mentioned.

Total number of 40 and 60 search and seizure operations during FY22 and FY23 respectively have been carried out for Violation of Quality Control Order (QCO) for toys, it added.