Policies boosted domestic toy production, says assn official

CHENNAI: The government policy on increasing customs duty on imported toys and making BIS certification mandatory for toys has boosted domestic toy manufacturing, an official of the Toy Association of India said on Thursday.

The move by the government has also helped the industry to explore global markets enhancing exports, president of the association Ajay Agarwal said here.

The Indian toy market is growing at over 12 per cent. Three years ago, nearly 80 per cent of the toys were imported, but, today, the scenario changed as imports dropped dramatically, he was quoted as saying in a release.

Sharing data provided by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, he said imports of toys which stood at $304 million in 2018-19 fell to $36 million in 2021-22.

According to him, over four to five lakh artisans were involved in making of toys and nearly 75 per cent of the toy-manufacturing facilities comprise micro, small and medium enterprises.

Maharashtra was the major toy market followed by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, New Delhi, he said.