Two Wheeler Helmet Manufacturers Association has been proactively taking up the matter of helmet safety in India and now with the new government it proactively takes up the issue on manufacturing & selling of non ISI helmet to be made a criminal offence.
As per the draft notification issued by the Road Transport and Highway Ministry on 2nd August, 2018, manufacture, storage and sale of non Indian standard (NON-ISI) Helmets for two wheelers will lead to arrest without warrant. While for first offence the penalty would amount to two years jail or fine of at least Rs 2 lakh, subsequent offences would attract higher fine However, this was not materialized during the last stint of the Government. Now, the ISI helmet industry hopes the new Government will take appropriate action & notify it as fast as possible. This initiative would also help to save more than 1.50 Lacs people from dying in fatal road accident.
Mr. Rajeev Kapur, President, Two Wheelers Helmet Manufacturers Association said, “The last Govt has also done quiet a lot to ban the spurious & fake ISI Helmets. However, there are some more issues which need to be tackled & we as an organized ISI helmet industry are confident that the new Government will take up the long pending issue of Fake ISI Helmets on utmost priority.”
The industry on the whole is hopeful that the New Government will demonstrate concrete actions to push investments, increase growth and generate employment. Furthermore, we are expecting the New Government will make the GST NIL on the helmets. “Helmets are life saving device just like medicines. Therefore, just the way there is no GST on medicines so shall helmets be exempted” added Mr Kapur.
Moreover, unless helmets are exempted from taxes, prices will go up and the effort of the government to roll out the new ISI standard and mandatory use of ISI helmets will be defeated.
Furthermore the input credit should be granted to the helmet manufacturers, leading to low cost of ISI Mark helmets for the consumers, with which millions of lives can be saved.
Urbanisation has led to doubling in traffic fatalities in the past few years with the number of deaths around 3 lacs/ year as per WHO report. Most people affected are pedestrians and two wheeler users.
While MoRTH has issued draft notification for bringing the two wheeler helmet into mandatory list of BIS certification; and MoRTH & BIS for implementation of new BIS standard IS4151:2015- India specific helmet standard. However corrective measures need to be taken to save human lives. Notification issued by MoRTH on bringing two wheeler helmets in mandatory BIS list should be gazetted. Awareness alone will not work. Strict enforcement is required. Government should make helmets mandatory pan India.
As per WHO report 300 thousand people are dying in road accidents in India but this number only includes what is reported and recorded by the Indian Government. On the contrary as per general view more than one million people are dying in India in road accidents because many of the accidents never get reported and recorded.
“Also, manufacturers and big organisation should be encouraged to come forward and invest in this field. Considering the current scenario the apprehension is that if they invest in this field and what if the government does not enforce the law. So we request the new government to carve out the future plans to make helmets mandatory PAN India.”
