Ever since Bombay High Court (HC) passed an order seven months ago stating access and benefit sharing (ABS) cases cannot be transferred to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) citing constitutional reasons, PIL filed by Ayush manufacturers seeking clarity on ABS compliance continues to remain sub judice in the court of law. This is despite the fact that Maharashtra State Biodiversity Board (MSBB) has detected 9 cases of non-compliance over the past few months.
Meanwhile, Ayush manufacturers has also managed to get a stay on the matter from the Bombay HC till further hearing following which MSBB cannot take coercive action on the manufacturers to enforce the ABS compliance.
Ayush manufacturers in the state had in the past also raised objection about MSBB collecting royalty under ABS compliance from Ayush companies in Maharashtra citing court directive.
The Bombay HC had sent notices to the respondents namely National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), MSBB, ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) and the state forest ministry and directed them not to take coercive action against the manufacturers taking into consideration a writ petition filed by Ayush manufacturers in the Nagpur bench of Bombay HC which sought clarity on whether Indian companies fall under ABS compliance.
The copy of the MSBB notice which is with Pharmabiz stated that MSBB has issued order to pay ABS in response to the concerned manufacturer’s reply that writ petition filed on behalf of ayush manufacturers in the Bombay HC is pending and therefore it is inappropriate to raise the demand notices for ABS.
MSBB has till date collected Rs. 9 lakh as royalty from Ayush manufacturers based on the access and benefit sharing compliance as per the provisions of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.
It is required to share benefit among concerned Biodiversity Management Committees (BMC) of the state for sustainable use of bio-resources as per Biological Diversity (BD) Act, 2002, as per a MSBB notice served to around 600 manufacturers in the state. The notice also states that MSBB has the mandate to collect ABS payment under the provisions of BD Act, 2002.
As per the MoEF notification, dated November 21, 2014, the benefit sharing obligation from trader and manufacturer shall be in the range of 1 to 3 per cent and 3 to 5 per cent respectively of the purchase price of the biological resources.
However, there is option to pay benefit sharing on sale price of the biological resources accessed for commercial utilisation under the law. For annual gross ex factory sale of product, in case of Rs. one crore benefit sharing will be 0.1 per cent, for Rs. 1 to Rs. 3 crore, it would be 0.2 per cent, for above Rs. 3 crore turn over, the benefit sharing will be 0.5 per cent.
Around 155 Ayush companies have also registered with MSBB to share details of the bio-resources procured for commercial utilisation. As per the BD Act, manufacturers are accountable to share details of the source from where raw material has been procured in Form I and further submission of the same to MSBB.