No quality certificate issued to 160 Chinese firms for selling toys in India

India has made it mandatory to get the quality certification mark of ‘ISI’ from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for the sale of toys in the country from January 2021.

“Around 160 Chinese toy companies have applied for the BIS quality certification in the last two years. We have not yet issued to them in view of the COVID-19 pandemic,” BIS Director General Pramod Kumar Tiwari said.

As per procedure, the BIS quality certification is issued after an inspection of the factories. However, due to the pandemic restrictions and health concerns, the BIS officials could not visit China, he said.

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“Neither they invited us for inspection nor we could visit China because of the pandemic,” Tiwari said.

In past 2 years, the BIS has granted the quality certificate to 29 foreign toy makers, out of which 14 are from Vietnam, Tiwari said, adding that the BIS has also issued the quality certificate to 982 Indian toy makers in the same period.

In the last few days, the BIS has been conducting enforcement raids at major airports and malls across the country for violation of toy quality control orders.

Tiwari said consumers can complain if they find illegal ‘made in China’ toys are sold in the country.

With PTI inputs.