Even as the Maharashtra State Biodiversity Board (MSBB) plans to take action against the ayurvedic manufacturers in the state for non-compliance, manufacturers say that access and benefit sharing (ABS) compliance is not applicable to Indian entities. Only foreign companies and companies holding foreign equity can be held liable as per the Biodiversity Diversity (BD) Act, 2002. The compliance to ABS notified in November last year is therefore irrational and unacceptable.
Reason, manufacturers have gone on to say that the fees charged as part of ABS in Form I meant to share details of the bio-resource sourced for commercial utilisation is too high for a small time manufacturer. There are 2000 manufacturers in the state, out of which only 5 per cent big manufacturers can afford to pay the fees of Rs. 5000.
As per the ABS compliance of BD Act, manufacturers are accountable to share details of the source from where raw material has been procured and share a certain per cent of the revenue generated out of the production to further the cause of biodiversity conservation and its sustainable use.
Says Vijay Sharma, secretary, Vidharbha Ayurvedic Manufacturers Association (VAMA), "Besides the exorbitant fees associated with the compliance, the bone of contention is that the commonly used herbs like ajwain (carom), black pepper, saunf (fennel) etc find very miniscule usage in the Ayurveda industry. The rest is sold from general retail stores which are outside the purview of ABS compliance. Considering the fact that most of the commonly consumed herbs in Indian households and food products find commercial utilisation of hardly 10 per cent in the Indian Ayurveda industry, It is therefore irrational and unacceptable that Ayurveda industry is subjected to comply with ABS for such a small amount of commercial utilisation."
MSBB had served around 350 notices in the past three months to the manufacturers in the state and received responses from only 20 manufacturers.
An official from MSBB stated that state biodiversity boards, National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) and central government are empowered to take legal action for the non-compliance to ABS.
While MSBB has maintained that it has the powers to impose fine to the tune of Rs. 2 lakhs or even more on the manufacturers as per the provisions of the BD Act, the manufacturers say that the board has failed in constituting Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) to further the implementation of the BD Act for sustainable use of bio-resources. The manufactures have been harassed in the name of compliance without being explained the rational behind it and heard judiciously.
As per the MOEF notification on ABS, when the biological resources are accessed for commercial utilisation or the bio-survey and bio-utilisation leads to commercial utilisation, the applicant shall have the option to pay the benefit sharing ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 per cent at the following graded percentages of the annual gross ex-factory sale of the product which shall be worked out based on the annual gross ex-factory sale minus government taxes.
According to Sections 7 and 24 (2) of the Act, organisations extracting plant based material for commercial purpose without intimation to MSBB are liable under Section 55 (2) of the Act and shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend up to 3 years with fine or 5 years with fine or both.