Registration mandatory for sale of 15 electronic items: Government

NEW DELHI: To ensure safety standards, the government has made registration mandatory for 15 electronic products, including video games, laptops and microwave ovens.

"The Department of Electronics and IT (DeitY) has issued the Electronics and Information Technology Goods (Requirements for Compulsory Registration) Order, 2012, bringing into force a scheme for mandatory regime of registration of identified 15 electronic products so that these products meet specified safety standards," said an official statement.

The list of electronics products include video games, laptop/notebook/tablet, Plasma/LCD/LED televisions, microwave ovens, printers and scanners, telephone answering machines, electronic musical systems etc.

As against licensing, the scheme provides for self-registration of specified electronic goods.

"The scheme provides that no person shall by himself or through any person on his behalf manufacture or store for sale, import, sell or distribute specified electronic goods which do not conform to the specified standard and do not bear the words "Self declaration - conforming to IS (Indian Standard) on such goods after obtaining registration from the BIS," the statement said.

"Substandard or defective goods which do not conform to the specified standard will be deformed beyond use by the manufacturer and disposed of as scrap," it added.

However, the order does not apply to electronic goods meant for export.

The scheme also provides that the electronic goods having different sizes, ratings, varieties etc, such goods shall be grouped and may be granted series approval for a series of products based on testing of representative models.

DeitY will approve such series of products. This will obviate the need for every single model of the same series to be registered, the statement said.

The scheme also provides for DeitY and the BIS to randomly select samples of registered electronic goods to ascertain whether these goods conform to the Specified Standard.

The electronic goods have to be tested by a BIS approved testing laboratories.

The order will come will come into effect from March 7.