Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) has so far included 108 items in Compulsory Certification Marks Scheme (CCMS) to check and monitor the quality of products.
The authority generates its revenue by testing products, issuing licenses/quality assurance certificates and marking fees.
Currently, manufacturers of some of the mandatory products are not getting licenses nor paying any marking fees for the last few years which mainly include cement, sugar, fertiliser, continental biscuits, black tea etc.
Under measures being adopted to improve performance of PSQCA, official sources at Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) on Saturday said an introduction of Foreign Manufacturer License Scheme (FMLS) is under active consideration to benefit importers by reducing clearing time for imports.
They said amendments in the PSQCA Act have been proposed to ensure improved governance. The proposed amendments include reconstitution of the board of directors and advisory council is being replaced by proposed membership.
However, in order to make it more effective, the government has undertaken the initiatives which included enhancement of penalties, reduction in discretionary and arbitrary powers of PSQCA’s officers/field staff to place a robust monitoring mechanism.
The sources said re-structuring of the PSQCA has also been proposed in National Quality Policy (NQP) to meet the best international practices while steps were being taken to improve monitoring mechanism through enhanced market surveillance, surprise visits, besides regular quarterly inspection of plants.
A mobile testing laboratory is functional at Karachi while similar laboratories have also been planned to be introduced in all the major cities in the country, the sources added.
The other steps were signing of the memorandum of understanding with counterpart international organisations for enhanced credibility and mutual recognition, with a view to facilitate exporters and up-gradation in terms of equipment and qualified manpower of PSQCA Testing Laboratories.
Steps have also been taken to increase the number of accredited tests, process of hiring on merit based qualified manpower against vacant posts is underway, new Directorate of Conformity Assessment in north region of Pakistan has been established with jurisdiction of Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) with prime objective of enhancing administrative efficiency.
PSQCA’s Board of Directors (BoD) has also given an approval for the establishment of its liaison office in Bahawalpur for enforcement of the standards in the remote areas.
Moreover, the sources said the board of PSQCA is presently considering a proposal to revise fee structure being charged by the authority.
This proposal is under preparation and shall be presented in the next BoD meeting.
