“In order to be traded in Indonesia, there is some of the products must be certified to ensure it reached a certain standard of safety, or more commonly known as SNI License.”
In Indonesia, we would often see products with SNI license. Most often in products used by the public, such as motorcycle helmets and LPG gas tanks. It is because for some products, in order to be traded in Indonesia, it must be certified to ensure they reached a certain standard of safety, or more commonly known as SNI.
SNI or Standard Nasional Indonesia, is a standard set by BSN or Badan Standarisasi Nasional (National Standardization Body), which is valid in the whole territory of Indonesia.
According to Government Regulation No. 34 of 2018 on National Standardization and Evaluation System (PP 34/2018), SNI is actually applicable to products, services, processes/systems, and/or Individuals involved in a certain activities, however, it is indeed found most often in traded products. The standard itself varies from product to product as it is made to ensure that each product has a good quality and consumer’s safety.
Mandatory SNI
According to PP 34/2018, there are 2 (two) types of SNI, mandatory SNI and voluntary SNI. BSN, as the authorized institution to issue SNI draft is constantly updating the list of products required to be SNI certified. For SNI mandatory products, SNI application can be submitted to an authorized certification committee (LSPro).
For products that are not listed as SNI mandatory, it could still be certified as long as there is a LSPro authorized to certify the product. However, since LSPro is usually only authorized to certify a few types of products, it is possible for a product to not be able to acquire SNI certification due to the lack of authorized LSPro to handle the certification.
Deciding which product is SNI mandatory could be tricky as it is not listed in a single regulation. Each SNI obligation is often regulated in separate regulations.
For example, cooking oil is SNI mandatory based on Minister of Industry Regulation No. 46 of 2019, while on the other hand, kid toys are SNI mandatory based on Minister of Industry Regulation No. 29 of 2018. Furthermore, sometimes the SNI obligation might not specifically refer to or include the product in question.
For some SNI obligation, it refers to a specific and easy to recognize the product, such as mineral water or food salt. For some others, it might refer to multiple parts of a product separately, for example, LPG gas tank, the valve of LPG gas tank, Pressure regulator of LPG gas tank, and rubber hose of LPG gas tank; all part of a gas tank yet separated by SNI.
For some other, it might refer to the criteria of the product, for instance, safety criteria of kid toys from physis and mechanic aspect, from the easily combustible aspect, and from a specific element aspect; these do not refer to a specific product but implicitly mean kid toys are SNI mandatory.
When to Apply for SNI Certification
As explained above, there are mandatory and voluntary SNI; thus the requirement to apply for SNI certification depends on the applicant’s need. For voluntary SNI, there’s no penalty for not applying for the certification.
Therefore, it is often applied when the applicant would like to add valuable points to the product, as SNI certified product would mean the product is up to national standard. On the other hand, for mandatory SNI, it is required to be certified if the product is traded in Indonesia.
In other words, when the product is only used for an internal purposes, there is no need for SNI, however, the moment it is sold to the public, it would require SNI certification.
According to Law No. 20 of 2014 on Standardization and Conformity Evaluation (UU No. 20/2014), anyone who is trading SNI mandatory product without acquiring the relevant SNI certification or have acquired it before but is already expired can be charged up to 5 (five) years of imprisonment or fines up to IDR 35 billion.
SNI for Import Products
Generally, according to UU No. 24/2014, SNI obligation applies to any products traded in Indonesia, whether produced locally or imported. Any importer who traded uncertified SNI mandatory products can be charged with up to 5 (five) years of imprisonment or fines up to IDR 35 billion. However, whether one product can be considered SNI mandatory or not depends on the specific regulation.
For example, according to Minister of Industry Regulation No. 29 of 2018 on Application of Mandatory SNI Certification for Toys, kids toys, in general, are SNI mandatory, but, for imported toys that have different HS Codes to the ones listed in this regulation are not considered SNI mandatory.
Author: Benedictus Giovanni
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