SIRIM or Suruhanjaya Tenaga labels in Malaysia?

Let's get to the basics here. How do you know if an electrical item is safe to use in Malaysia? You would probably check if the product has any safety marking or label on it, wouldn't you? If you have never checked before buying any electrical products, you better start now. If you have no idea what a safety label is, read on.

A little knowledge here won't hurt

Most if not all electrical items in Malaysia need a certificate of approval (COA) from Suruhanjaya Tenaga (ST) or Energy Commission in English. The approval to import, sell, distribute, exhibit, or export. ST will approve any electrical products for these purposes only if the products are tested and certified by accredited institutions/labs. And ST only recognizes labs (Eg. SIRIM, and NEMKO)  that are under accredited institutions like a) Laboratory Accreditation Scheme of Malaysia (SAMM) by Department of Standards Malaysia; b) IECEE CB Scheme; c) Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC); and d) Designated Testing Laboratory under ASEAN Sectoral Mutual Recognition Agreement for Electrical and Electronic Equipment. After getting the COA from ST, the next step is to buy SIRIM labels from SIRIM Berhad to adhere onto the products (there are few more steps here but I'm not going to elaborate). Only then the products are deemed to be safe to sell in Malaysia. In short, all electrical product being sold in Malaysia and approved by ST are required to stick a SIRIM label on it.  

The trick

Please re-read the underlined sentence above and remember that it is only SIRIM label that is used in Malaysia. Not any other labels as being used by inscrupulous businessmen. Many electrical items in Malaysia, especially Extension Sockets and Plug Tops are adhered with Suruhanjaya Tenaga labels to fool consumers. Because Suruhanjaya Tenaga does not issue or sell labels. I dare say any products that has an ST label on it are fake, not tested by SIRIM, and not approved by ST.

Assurance

So, the next time you buy an electrical item, look for its SIRIM label. Not any other label. If there is a SIRIM label, it is safe to use, more or less. Why more or less? Because there are other tricks to fool you even there is a SIRIM label on it. No, they are not using fake SIRIM label. The labels are genuine, but not the product...I'll tell you how in my next post.