Govt will bring amended BIS Act in next Parliament Session: Paswan

He said more products need to be brought under the mandatory standard regime

Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan has said that the government will bring the amended BIS Act in the next Parliament Session to bring in more products under the mandatory standard regime.

"We are going to amend two Acts, the BIS Act and the Consumer Protection Act. Yesterday we had a meeting with the Finance Minister and the Group of Ministers and I think in the next Parliament session we will bring the BIS Act," said Paswan.

He was speaking to the reporters abouUnion Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan said the government would bring the amended Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act in the next Parliament session to bring in more products under the mandatory standard regime.

"We are going to amend two Acts — the BIS Act and Consumer Protection Act. Yesterday (on Wednesday) we had a meeting with the finance minister and the group of ministers and I think in the next Parliament session, we will bring in the Act,” said Paswan, while talking about the achievements of the National Democratic Alliance government.

The minister said when the prime minister speaks about ‘Make in India’, the standards of the products has to be maintained. There are 92 items, which are under mandatory standards. The government proposes to bring more products under the mandatory system.

The amendments have been finalised to strengthen the quality assurance regime for goods and services in the country. The market surveillance for standards and testing of products was made more effective, he said.

Similarly, the government is also looking at strengthening the consumer protection regime by amending the Consumer Protection Act.

The ministry has called a meeting of the officials of consumer courts on May 29 to discuss ways to improve functioning of grievance redressal forums.

“All the 125 crore people in the country are consumers, but their interests are not protected,” he said.

"Our proposal is that there is no need to have advocates to represent also. Those who can keep advocates, they can do that, otherwise they can represent themselves," he said.

On completion of one year by the NDA government, Paswan said the government has made a strong foundation to fulfil various promises made before the electorate in the remaining years of power.

"India's prestige has gone up and there is zero corruption. Inflation rate has been below the average," he said.