The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, on Thursday announced that in recent raids at a Flipkart subsidiary and a seller Amazon Sellers Pvt Ltd in Delhi, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) seized products worth ₹76 lakhs. Some products had no ISI mark, while others carried fake ISI labels, according to the ministry.
The national standards watchdog raided the warehouse of Amazon Sellers Pvt Ltd at Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area in Delhi on March 19, where they seized at least 3,500 products, including geysers, food mixers, and other electrical appliances, worth around ₹76 lakhs.
These included products "both without an ISI mark and marked with fake ISI labels", according to the official statement.
In another raid, the BIS officers uncovered around 590 pairs of sports shoes, packaged for dispatch without the necessary ISI mark and date of manufacture, Instakart Services Pvt Limited, a Flipkart subsidiary located at Trinagar in Delhi, said the ministry. The seized materials amounted to ₹6 lakh.
BIS raid team at Instakart Services Pvt Ltd | PIB India
These are not isolated incidents, and the Bureau of Indian Standards has tightened the leash on e-commerce players recently over multiple reports of subpar quality products flooding the market.
In the last one month, the watchdog organisations conducted search-and-seize operations in different parts of India, leading to the unearthing of non-BIS products in Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Lucknow, and Sriperumbudur.
As part of the announcement on the recent raids, the Centre also noted that 769 products are currently notified for compulsory certification by various regulators, and line ministries of the Government of India.
"It is prohibited to manufacture, import, distribute, sell, hire, lease, store, or exhibit (for sale) these products without a valid license or Certificate of Compliance (CoC) from BIS," said the Centre in the statement, adding, "Any person who contravenes the provisions of this Order shall be punishable under sub-section (3) of section 29 of the BIS Act, 2016, with imprisonment, a fine, or both."
