Diwali near, govt tries to pull plug on Chinese LEDs – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Ahead of Diwali, the government has put in place norms to check if LED lights imported into the country were complying with Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) norms. The move is meant to curb the shipment of lights from across the border, which dominate the Indian market.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has amended the foreign trade policy to insist on quality checks with random samples picked up by the BIS for testing in recognized labs. In case a sample fails to clear the test, the entire shipment will be destroyed, an order said.
While India has clamped down on Chinese imports in recent weeks amid border tension at Ladakh, it had initiated checks on the entry of non-essential imports from China in the last year.
In recent years, most items used by Indian households in Diwali be it LED lights, idols or even decoration items are imported from China but are not captured in trade numbers as some of them enter India illegally or often as part of the “others” category and therefore goes under the radar.