Union Cabinet approved Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2015

The Union Cabinet on 17 June 2015 gave its approval to introduce Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2015 in the Parliament. It will repeal the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act, 1986.

The bill is intended to improve the quality of goods, services and systems in the country.

Objectives of Indian Standards Bill, 2015

• To establish the Bureau of Indian standards (BIS) as the National Standards Body of India. The BIS will perform its functions through a Governing Council, which will consist of its President and other members
• To include goods, services and systems, besides articles and processes under the standardization regime
• To enable the Government to bring under the mandatory certification regime such article, process or service which it considers necessary from the point of view of health, safety, environment, prevention of deceptive practices, security etc. This will help consumers receive ISI certified products and will also help in prevention of import of sub-standard products

• To allow 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 standards and get a certificate of conformity, thus improving the ease of doing business
• To enable the Union Government to appoint any authority, in addition to the BIS, to verify the conformity of products and services to a standard and issue certificate of conformity
• To enable the Government to implement mandatory hallmarking of precious metal articles
• To strengthen penal provisions for better and effective compliance and enable compounding of offences for violations
• To provide recall, including product liability of products bearing the Standard Mark, but not conforming to relevant Indian Standards

Comment

The proposed Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2015 will empower the Union Government and the BIS to promote a culture of quality of products and services through mandatory or voluntary compliance with Indian standards through the process of product certification and Certificate of Conformity with a broad objective of consumer's welfare.

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