Businessmen in Chittagong division have been facing hard times as Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute (BSTI) regional office is able to test only 55 sorts of products out of 155 because of unavailability of necessary equipment.
Sources said there were drinking water, fruit juice, tomato sauce, condensed milk, glucose, energy drink, ice cream, power of light drinks, canned fruit, different kinds of baby food, soap, shaving cream, skin cream, toothpaste, mosquito coil, 11 sorts of jute and textile products, 19 sorts of electrical and electronic products and 12 sorts of engineering products among the goods which the institute cannot test. However, the office can officially test only 64 locally-produced and imported items, and manufacturing and marketing of any goods without its approval is illegal.
Shawkat Osman, deputy director of the BSTI in Chittagong, said: “We have to send 100 kinds of goods to Dhaka for quality test due to the lack of equipment in our laboratories.”
He added that the manufacturers and importers have to wait for long because of sending the samples to Dhaka and the office also faces difficulties during drives against adulterators and substandard goods makers, as they could not detect those instantly due to equipment crisis.