Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said Bureau of Indian Standards -BIS Bill, 2016 is a major step forward in ensuring high quality products and services in the country. <br/><br/>Taking to media in New Delhi today, he said standards certification for products and services concerning health, safety and environment has been made mandatory. Mr. Paswan said new bill empowers government to implement mandatory hallmarking of precious metal articles such as gold and silver. <br/><br/>He said BIS will boost Make in India campaign. Mr. Paswan said, self-declaration of conformity of standards has been introduced, along with stringent penalty provisions for violation. Penalty provisions include imprisonment upto two years or with fine upto ten times of the value of goods produced or sold, or with both.<br/><br/>He said the new bill provides for compensation to consumers if goods and services do not conform to standards. He also said BIS can now order product recall, not confirming to standards, apart from canceling manufacturer's license. The Bill positions the Bureau of Indian Standards as the National Standards Body. The bill was passed by Rajya Sabha yesterday after getting the nod of Lok Sabha in December, 2015.