Delhi tops all-India list of BIS violations: Study

With almost 73 per cent of LED bulb brands found not conforming to the standards set by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Delhi stands as the city with the highest number of BIS norms violations in the country, a study said here on Monday.

According to a Nielsen study conducted across four major Indian cities — New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, 76 per cent of LED bulb brands and 71 per cent of LED downlighter brands across 200 electrical retail outlets were found to be non-compliant with consumer safety standards.

The consumer safety standards are prescribed and mandated for lighting products by the BIS and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India.

According to the study, these spurious products are a serious safety hazard for consumers besides causing significant losses in tax revenues to the Government of India, as they are illegally manufactured and sold.

The findings from the key markets surveyed showed that 48 per cent of the LED bulb brands had no mention of manufacturer’s address and 31 per cent brands did not have a manufacturer’s name, i.e. these brands violate Indian legal metrology regulations and are manufactured illegally.

Similarly, the study conducted on LED downlighters showed that of the total sample size, 45 per cent brands did not have a manufacturer’s name and 51 per cent brands had no mention of the manufacturer’s address.

As per ELCOMA (Electric Lamp and Component Manufacturers’ Association), the total LED market in the country is worth Rs 10,000 crore, with LED bulbs and downlighters constituting 50 per cent of the overall LED market, being widely used across homes, offices and workspaces.

“The large number of non-compliant manufacturers of LED bulbs and downlighters threaten fair competition in the LED lighting market, especially for those companies that are compliant to all mandatory consumer safety standards,” said Rakesh Zutshi, President of ELCOMA and Managing Director, Halonix Technologies.

“It is very unlikely that the manufacturers of these spurious LED bulbs and downlighters pay any GST to the government, thereby causing a huge loss to the exchequer,” he added.