Govt may make Bureau of Indian Standards must for public procurement

The commerce and industry ministry is working on a proposal to mandate various government departments, ministries, and public sector undertakings to procure products certified by the national standards body — the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

Besides, if an Indian standard for a particular product does not exist, BIS will have to draw up such a standard within a ‘fixed time frame’, a senior government official told Business Standard.

These changes have been proposed in the draft amendments to the public procurement norms moved by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.

“The idea is to promote the use of Indian standards. These changes will be implemented through an amendment to the current public procurement norms. The government is considering a few changes in the Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order. The consultations (for amendments to the order) are still going on,” said the official quoted earlier.

The development comes in the backdrop of the government’s focus on increasing manufacturing and production of goods in the country, amid the government’s push towards Make in India. Besides, adhering to non-Indian standards in the procurement process had turned into a disadvantage for domestic manufacturers producing according to Indian standards.

The proposed changes, if implemented, will also give impetus to production of superior quality products that will be sold in India and exported to other countries.

In case the national standards body is not able to prepare the Indian standard for an item, within a specified time frame, the procuring authority will be allowed to procure the product. However, the procuring authority will have to ensure the unavailability of standards have to be kept in formal records, said the official.

The five-year-old national standards body was set up to pave the way for a mandatory certification regime that is crucial from the point of view of providing safe and reliable quality of goods, minimising health hazards to consumers, promoting exports, import substitution, and ensuring standardisation, certification, and testing of products.

In the past, Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal had said India should aim to be a world leader in having maximum industrial products under Indian standards. “No one should feel the need to go abroad to get quality certification,” he had said while reviewing the work of BIS earlier this year.