Govt amends BIS rules to quicken product certification, tighten compliance norms

manufacturing expansion.The government has amended the BIS (Conformity Assessment) Regulations, 2018, restructuring the framework for Scheme-II and Scheme-VII by formalizing a Self-Declaration of Conformity (SDOC) model for eligible notified products.“Under this system, manufacturers can obtain a licence to use the Standard Mark through registration based on self-declaration, backed by accredited lab reports,” said one of the two officials cited above, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.Scheme-II refers to the registration-based certification framework under BIS, largely covering notified electronics and IT (information technology) products where conformity is established through third-party testing and documentation, rather than mandatory pre-licence factory inspection.Under the revised Scheme-II, the application fee and annual licence fee are fixed at ₹1,000 each, with a resource fee of ₹25,000 per application payable in advance. Applications involving multiple test reports will attract an additional ₹20,000 for each extra report, with the fee structure now formally codified under the Self-Declaration of Conformity framework.Queries sent on Friday to BIS and the ministries of consumer affairs and commerce remained unanswered till press time.However, easier access to BIS certification—needed to use the Standard Mark on notified products—is paired with stricter ongoing compliance.

Annual licence fees must now be paid upfront, and failure to pay them or file production returns will trigger automatic suspension for up to 90 days, failing which the licence will be cancelled. A delayed payment within the suspension period will attract a ₹5,000 late fee.“It does not mean that these products will not require the