Product Compliance

On 13 August, the exemption that let India's small furniture makers and importers skip BIS certification runs out: the amendment trade press covered in February added narrow import and stock exceptions, but never touched this date

On 13 August 2026, the eighteen-month exemption that let India's micro and small furniture enterprises skip BIS certification under the Furniture (Quality Control) Order, 2025 (S.O. 801(E)) expires. A February 2026 amendment (S.O. 774(E)) added capped R&D import, stock clearance and export-component carve-outs, but none of them touched this deadline, set the day the order was notified on 13 February 2025.

Naomie HaliouaCDO and co-founder 13 August 2026 · 6 min read

A relief measure and a deadline, in the same order, moving on different clocks

The Furniture (Quality Control) Order, 2025 does not set one blanket furniture standard. It maps six distinct product categories to six separate 2022 Indian Standards: Work Chairs (IS 17631:2022), General Purpose Chairs and Stools (IS 17632:2022), Tables and Desks (IS 17633:2022), Storage Units (IS 17634:2022), Beds (IS 17635:2022) and Bunk Beds (IS 17636:2022). Each category needs its own BIS licence and its own ISI mark before a product in it can be manufactured, imported or sold in India. Large and medium enterprises had to comply from 14 February 2026. Micro and small enterprises, classified under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 and registered on the Udyam portal, were given an exemption running until the expiry of eighteen months from the order's 13 February 2025 notification date, which lands on 13 August 2026. The February 2026 amendment that most compliance trackers wrote about did something else entirely: it gave any manufacturer, regardless of size, a capped allowance to import unmarked units for research and development, let anyone holding pre-deadline stock keep selling it for a further twelve months, and let exporters bring in unmarked components for goods that leave India rather than being sold there. All three are narrow, conditional carve-outs layered onto the base rule. None of them moved the one date that decides whether a small furniture business can keep operating at all.

Three nuances that separate signal from noise

The February amendment eased exceptions, not the deadline

Coverage of S.O. 774(E) read it as India loosening the furniture rule. What it actually did was add three permanent, conditional carve-outs, R&D imports, stock clearance, export components, none of which extends the eighteen-month exemption that expires today.

Six standards, not one furniture rule

A brand's catalogue rarely sits in one category. A range spanning stools, tables and storage units needs a separate BIS licence and ISI mark for each of the three underlying Indian Standards, not one approval covering the whole line.

The size test is Udyam registration, not a common-sense read of "small"

Whether a manufacturer or importer qualified for the exemption turned on its MSMED Act classification recorded on the Udyam portal, investment and turnover thresholds, not on staff count or how the business describes itself.

13 Feb 2025

DPIIT notifies the Furniture (Quality Control) Order, 2025 (S.O. 801(E)) under the BIS Act, 2016, mapping six furniture categories to six 2022 Indian Standards and starting an eighteen-month exemption clock for micro and small enterprises.

14 Feb 2026

The order takes effect for large and medium enterprises. BIS licensing and the ISI mark become mandatory to manufacture, import or sell the six covered furniture categories in India.

Feb 2026

DPIIT gazettes the Furniture (Quality Control) Amendment Order, 2026 (S.O. 774(E)), adding a capped R&D import allowance, a twelve-month existing-stock clearance window and an export-component import carve-out.

13 Aug 2026

The eighteen-month exemption expires. Micro and small furniture manufacturers and importers must now hold a valid BIS licence and bear the ISI mark to keep operating in the six covered categories.

The numbers behind 13 August

One number is how many separate product categories, and separate licences, the order actually covers. One is the length of the exemption clock that just ran out. The third is the size of the one exception a manufacturer can still use today, and how tightly it is capped.

furniture categories covered, each mapped to its own 2022 Indian Standard and requiring a separate BIS licence: work chairs, general purpose chairs and stools, tables and desks, storage units, beds and bunk beds

18 months

the exemption window DPIIT wrote into the order for micro and small enterprises on 13 February 2025, expiring 13 August 2026

200 units/FY

the cap on unmarked goods a BIS-licensed manufacturer, or one with a pending application, may import per financial year for R&D use under the February 2026 amendment, to be scrapped afterward, not sold

The real subject: an exemption expiring on schedule, not a rule getting easier

The February 2026 amendment gave the furniture QCO a relief narrative: capped R&D imports, a stock clearance window, an export carve-out, changes that read, correctly, as the government responding to industry pressure. That narrative sat on top of a separate, older clock that the amendment never touched. The eighteen-month exemption for micro and small enterprises was set the day the order was notified, 13 February 2025, and it was always going to expire on 13 August 2026 regardless of what else DPIIT added in between. A business that read the February amendment as evidence the rule was softening, and assumed its own compliance runway had moved with it, is now on the wrong side of a deadline it may not have been tracking as a deadline at all. The classification that mattered from day one, MSMED Act size, recorded on Udyam, not the amendment that made the trade headlines, is what decides whether a furniture manufacturer or importer can legally keep operating in India today.

Why it matters for brands

For any retail or consumer-goods brand that imports or sells furniture-category products into India, camping and outdoor chairs, folding tables, storage units, bed frames, sold directly or through a local distributor, three things follow from today. First, confirm now, not next quarter, whether every supplier behind those SKUs already holds a BIS licence, including any small-scale Indian manufacturer a brand sources components or finished pieces from: a supplier that was compliant yesterday under the exemption is not compliant today without one, and the obligation to hold a valid licence sits with whoever manufactures, imports or sells the product, not just the brand on the label. Second, treat classification as a per-category exercise: a product range spanning chairs, tables and storage furniture needs BIS licences mapped to each of the relevant Indian Standards, not one blanket approval, so an SKU-by-SKU mapping against IS 17631 through IS 17636 is the only way to know actual exposure. Third, do not read the February 2026 amendment as general relief: its three carve-outs, capped R&D imports, a twelve-month stock clearance window, export-component imports, are narrow and conditional, each with its own limit and paperwork, and none of them is a substitute for holding a licence on a product a brand intends to sell in India after today.

Two ways to read 13 August

The narrow read

India made its furniture BIS rule more flexible in early 2026, first mandating certification for larger enterprises, then adding import and stock allowances the same month.

The structural read

The flexibility that made headlines in February never touched the one date that decides whether a small manufacturer or importer can legally keep selling furniture in India, and that date is today: the exemption clock, and the classification test behind it, ran independently of the amendment the whole time.

Frequently asked questions

What changed for furniture sold in India on 13 August 2026?

The eighteen-month exemption for micro and small enterprises under the Furniture (Quality Control) Order, 2025 (S.O. 801(E)) expires. BIS licensing and the ISI mark, already mandatory for large and medium enterprises since 14 February 2026, now also apply to micro and small furniture manufacturers and importers, across the same six covered categories.

Does the February 2026 amendment order extend this deadline?

No. The Furniture (Quality Control) Amendment Order, 2026 (S.O. 774(E)) added three narrow, conditional carve-outs: a capped R&D import allowance (200 units per financial year), a twelve-month clearance window for pre-deadline stock, and an import allowance for unmarked components used in export manufacturing. None of these changed the eighteen-month exemption clock, which was set on 13 February 2025 and always expired 13 August 2026.

Which furniture categories are covered, and what should brands importing into India check?

Six categories, each mapped to its own 2022 Indian Standard: work chairs (IS 17631), general purpose chairs and stools (IS 17632), tables and desks (IS 17633), storage units (IS 17634), beds (IS 17635) and bunk beds (IS 17636). Brands selling any of these into India should confirm, per category and per supplier, whether a valid BIS licence is already in place, since a small supplier's exemption ends with this deadline.