Centre grants 29 licenses to foreign toy manufacturing units, China gets none

New Delhi, Feb 4 (KNN) Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ashwini Kumar Choubey said on Friday that 29 toy manufacturing units have been granted license under the Bureau of Indian Standards’ (BIS) foreign manufacturers certification scheme.

He clarified in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha that no license has been given to any unit from China.

The minister said that the safety of toys is under compulsory BIS certification from 1 January 2021 as per the Toys (Quality Control) Order, 2020 issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Accordingly, as per this order, it has been made compulsory for toys to conform to the corresponding Indian Standards for Safety of Toys and to bear the BIS Standard Mark under a licence from BIS as per Scheme-I of Schedule-II of BIS (Conformity Assessment) Regulations, 2018.

As per this Quality Control Order, read with Section 17 of the BIS Act, 2016, no person shall manufacture, import, distribute, sell, hire, lease, store or exhibit for sale any toys without the ISI mark.

Under the BIS Product Certification scheme, i.e., 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 BIS licence for safety of toys.  (KNN Bureau)