On 28 April 2022, the Bureau of Indian Standard published an update regarding the Surveillance to be conducted on all stakeholders registered with BIS
- According to the updated guidelines of market surveillance (BIS), the cost of samples and the testing fee of the sample drawn for surveillance shall be paid by the licensee.
- The charges associated with surveillance shall be collected in advance (interest fee) from the licensee so that the implementation process of Surveillance can be more effective and hassle-free.
- The surveillance cost for the product will be retained by BIS and refunded only at the time of expiry/cancellation of the license.
- Actual invoices will be raised to the licensee/Authorized Indian Representative upon completion of procurement, packaging/transportation, and submission of samples to BIS/BIS recognized labs, against which payment will be made by the manufacturer/Authorized Indian Representative to replenish the cost incurred by BIS along with applicable taxes.
- The cost of surveillance is subject to periodic adjustment by BIS. All licensees must comply with the revised surveillance charges if they are revised.
- BIS is authorized to draw the samples from the open market. But for the foreign Manufactures, their Indian representative has to submit all the details of their distribution channel(s) including warehouses, wholesalers, retailers, etc.
- Once the test reports are obtained and deemed to be non-conforming to the applicable Standard(s), BIS will notify the licensee/Authorized Indian Representative, and steps will be taken in accordance with the procedures for dealing with surveillance samples' non-conformity(s).
- Once the surveillance procedure is completed and the test report is passed, the Licensee/Authorized Indian Representative will be notified via the portal to collect the sample from the concerned laboratory where the sample was sent for testing.
- Only once the surveillance process is completed will the licensee/Authorized Indian Representative be given information about the testing lab. If the licensee/Authorized Indian Representative fails to collect the samples, laboratories can dispose of them according to the BIS's Laboratory Recognition Scheme (LRS) disposal policy.