FMTTI vs BIS Certification Difference Explained

Two different jobs, often confused as one

We get this question constantly: "we already have BIS certification, do we still need FMTTI testing?" The short answer is that BIS and FMTTI aren't doing the same job, so one doesn't stand in for the other.

BIS is India's national standards body. Through its sectional committees, it writes the technical specifications — the IS codes — that define what a piece of farm machinery should be able to do, how it should be built, and what's considered safe. FMTTI institutes don't write those standards. What they do is physically put a machine through its paces — running-in hours, drawbar tests, field trials, brake and noise checks, the whole programme — and issue a test report on how that specific machine actually performed, at a government institute, by the institute's own engineers.

Where the standards come from

The BIS side of this is organised under three sectional committees relevant to agricultural machinery: FAD 21 (soil working, sowing, crop protection, harvesting, threshing, farm transport and more, 148 published standards), FAD 20 (farm implements and machinery generally, 53 published standards), and FAD 11 (tractors and power tillers, 63 published standards) — 264 published IS standards across the three. FAD 21 also maintains liaison with ISO/TC 23, the international agricultural machinery committee, so some of this work connects to global standards too.

Worth flagging: on the lists we've seen, the most recent publication year shown is 2012, and the majority of entries predate 2000. That doesn't mean the standards are out of date — committees reaffirm or revise codes on their own schedule — but if a specific IS number matters for your compliance file, confirm its current status and revision year directly with BIS rather than relying on an older published list.

Where FMTTI fits

FMTTI's job starts where the standard leaves off. An institute takes the actual machine, runs the prescribed tests, and produces a Draft and then Final Test Report documenting what happened. For tractors specifically, CFMTTI Budni also carries the national type-approval/homologation mandate — meaning it's the authority that formally approves a tractor model for the Indian market, not just a performance reporter.

The two systems are stitched together in the paperwork itself. When you apply for an FMTTI test, one of the required documents is a "Declaration of selected performance characteristics," and it has to be filled per IS 13539:2008 — an actual BIS standard built directly into the FMTTI application process. For power tillers, the application also requires a separate CMVR certificate and engine emission certificate, both of which sit under a different regulatory track again. So a single machine can legitimately be carrying a BIS-referenced declaration, an FMTTI test report, and a CMVR certificate, all at once, because each one is answering a different question.

Other bodies in the mix

FMTTI isn't the only notified testing body either. ARAI and ICAT are alternate notified agencies under the CMVR framework, and manufacturers sometimes route emission-cycle testing (AIS-137) to them, or use them when FMTTI's testing slots are constrained.

Where we fit into this

This is exactly the kind of overlap that trips manufacturers up — not because the rules are badly written, but because three or four approval tracks can apply to one machine at once. We guide manufacturers, dealers and buyers through working out which of these actually applies to their machine, coordinate the FMTTI side of it, and liaise with the institute on scheduling and documentation. We don't run the tests — FMTTI's engineers do that, at the institute — but we make sure you're not duplicating paperwork or missing a requirement that sits just outside the FMTTI application itself.