Not A Level Playing Field Complain Indian Toy Makers

Indian toy factories seem to be getting badly affected and many of them are faced with closure because of various issues caused by non-implementation of various rules and guidelines. Members of the Toy Association of India and The All India Toy Manufacturers’ Association feel that both these representative bodies urgently need to present various facts to the government, especially as Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has focused on the toy industry in his own speech stressing the Aatmanirbhar programme. Officials of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), which is tasked with certifying toys among other items, have also been pleading pre-occupation with other work over the past three years. Some foreign manufacturers have invaded the market by flouting BIS norms and rules under various umbrellas provided to protect the Indian industry. Another issue is the huge, continuous supply of imported non-BIS compliant toys – especially from China – because of leakages in the ports, with many customs officers and, later, BIS/ISI inspectors, willing to look the other way for a consideration. Also, the fact that components attract the same customs duty of 50-60% as readymade toys allows importers to misuse this and take advantage of the lower rates of around 20% levied on other products by declaring consignments as other products. This makes it important to define what a ‘component’ is: an organ inside a toy, like mechanical gearboxes, electric motors, coreless motors, PCBs, chips, LED for toys and the like. The duty on these should not be more than 20%, with strict adherence to the law. Unless these and other issues – including the unhealthy challenges from some e-commerce platforms – are addressed at the earliest, the Indian manufacturer will succumb to the uneven competition.