BSTI mark mandatory for 36 more products
The use of the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution's (BSTI) standardisation mark has been made mandatory for 36 new products, including LPG cylinders, pressure cookers, microwave ovens and sweetmeats.
The BSTI has taken the move to ensure the quality of the products and consumers' rights.
However, it created dismay among those who run small-scale operation to produce such products.
Among them are the sweetmeat makers, who opine that it would lead to them being harassed and impede their business.
Other products include green tea and malt-based food, chutneys, soy sauce, decorated cake, curd (chhana) and different types of cheese.
The list also contains beauty products such as hair creams, kajal, face packs and different types of soaps, bitumen and bituminous products, cookstoves and cooking solutions and industrial safety helmets.
Hessian and textile jute bags, nonwoven wipes, silk fabrics, synthetic mosquito nets, towels, lead-acid batteries, uninterruptible power systems (UPS), single-phase small AC, electric motors and toothbrushes also need to have the mark.
The manufacturers must use the BSTI standardisation mark in labels or in the bodies of the products, the state-run agency said in a circular issued on September 25.
In another notification issued on the same date, the BSTI said it has also banned sale, distribution and commercial advertisement of products not produced as per the agency's standards.
The watchdog for monitoring food items and manufacturing products also said the circulars would come into effect two months after their publication.
Md Reazul Haque, deputy director at the certification marks wing of the BSTI, said they have set standards for 4,200 products so far.
Of them, the mark is mandatory for 274 products, including the new ones, he said.
In order to use the standardisation mark or BSTI logo, the producers have to first get their product standards tested at the BSTI, he said.
"We will inspect the factories, collect samples and test those at the BSTI labs before issuing the licences," said Haque.
Non-compliance will result in a Tk 2 lakh fine or a four-year jail term or both as per the BSTI law, he added.
Madhab Chandra Ghosh, president of Bangladesh Sweets Manufacturers Association, said they did not know anything about the new move.
"It will lead to harassment for small businesses. The BSTI authority should have consulted stakeholders first," he said.
Ghosh also said he would raise the issues in their general meeting today to decide on their next course of action.
"Since we are becoming a high middle-income country in the next 17 years, all our activities need to be formalised accordingly," said Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
So, it is important to bring all companies under a formal structure through registrations and licencing under relevant authorities and using trademarks, he said.
Therefore, in case of businesses or products, be it retailers or small-scale ones, they should do business availing permission from the relevant institutions of the government, he said.
It is also important to ensure that such entities face no obstacles when going through such formalisation processes, Moazzem added.
"Our businesspeople are actually afraid of the hurdles in the process of formalising institutions. So, the government should keep an eye on those obstacles," he said.
For example, there are many allegations of bribes having to be paid to avail licences or to get those renewed and in some cases, the amount of fee being too high for a small product, he said.
"All these processes need to be brought online as much as possible. Certain fees for licences or other services should be fixed so that it is not a big burden on the small businesspeople," said Moazzem.
Besides, traders concerned should be made aware of these issues through the media, he said.
If a trader has any complaint about such processes, it should be taken into consideration transparently and addressed properly, he said.