Recently, the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals (DCPC) under India's Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers issued, in the Official Gazette on 6 October 2026, the second amendments (S.O. 5478(E), S.O. 5479(E) and S.O. 5480(E)) to three quality control orders (QCOs), once again deferring the implementation dates of the three woven sacks QCOs issued in 2023 so as to leave the industry more time to prepare for compliance before the requirements take effect: two of the categories are deferred to 6 January 2027, while PP woven, laminated and block-bottom valve sacks for cement packing are deferred to 6 November 2026, taking effect two months ahead of the former two. Once the orders take effect, the products concerned must be certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and bear the ISI mark before they may be manufactured, imported and sold in India.
Revised Implementation Dates
Each of the three amendment orders corresponds to one woven sacks QCO; the newly set implementation dates are as follows:
- S.O. 5478(E): Quality Control Order for HDPE/PP woven sacks for packing 50 kg cement; implementation date set for 6 January 2027.
- S.O. 5479(E): Quality Control Order for PP woven sacks, laminated woven sacks and block-bottom valve sacks for packing 50 kg cement; implementation date set for 6 November 2026, two months ahead of the other two categories.
- S.O. 5480(E): Quality Control Order for PP/HDPE laminated woven sacks used for mail sorting, storage, transport and distribution; implementation date set for 6 January 2027.
Background
The three QCOs above were formulated by the DCPC under the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016 and were issued in December 2023. Their implementation dates had already been postponed several times to allow manufacturers time to prepare for BIS certification; this amendment only re-specified the implementation dates, leaving other contents, such as the scope of regulated products and the technical requirements, unchanged.
Under the QCO regime, products within the scope must conform to the corresponding Indian Standards and obtain BIS certification with the ISI mark affixed; otherwise, they may not be manufactured, imported, distributed, sold or displayed in India. This requirement also applies to enterprises exporting such products to India from other countries.
ChemRadar Insights
India is a major export market for China's woven sack products. Enterprises exporting cement-packing woven sacks and laminated woven sacks for mail sorting to India should first verify whether their products fall within the scope of the above three QCOs and complete BIS certification before the corresponding implementation dates. Among them, the order for PP woven sacks, laminated woven sacks and block-bottom valve sacks for cement packing will come into force on 6 November 2026, only one day away at the time of writing; the time is extremely tight, and the enterprises concerned must immediately confirm the certification status of their products. The other two categories will take effect on 6 January 2027, and enterprises are also advised to arrange conformity testing and certification applications as early as possible to avoid certification backlogs as the effective dates approach.
