Even as ASU manufacturers are expected to comply with the November 21, 2014 notification on access and benefit sharing (ABS), ASU industry seeks clarity on the ABS compliance with reference to its consultation with National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) for specifying as to what is a value added product (VAP).
Meanwhile, as the State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) maintain that they have the powers to impose fine as per the provisions of the BD Act, ASU manufacturers argue they have been harassed in the name of compliance without being explained the rational behind it and heard judiciously.
The industry has argued that Tulsi plant is a bio-resource (BR) but whether Tulsi extract is a value added product (VAP). Similarly, whether oils, oleoresins, purified phyto-compounds etc. are BR/VAP.
In absence of such fundamental clarity, the ASU companies cannot comply with the Act. This is because every company is required to submit Form 1 every year to its respective SBB indicating the consumption of BRs.As of now the industry is not mentioning any oils, oleoresins, purified phyto-compounds in Form 1 applications.
"If all the oils, oleoresins, purified phyto-compounds, extracts etc are treated as bio-resources (BRs), the export of all such items will collapse," says Dr Arvind Saklani from herbal industry.
Besides this, applicability of Access Benefit Sharing (ABS) to purely Indian companies is not mentioned in the Act. It is only the ABS regulation of November 2014 which covers Indian companies for ABS. Thus, it is not clear whether the ABS regulation is ultra vires to the Act.
Besides this, 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.
Says Vijay Sharma, secretary, Vidharbha Ayurvedic Manufacturers Association (VAMA), "The bone of contention is that 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."
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 3 crores, it would be 0.2 per cent, for above Rs.3 crores turn over, the benefit sharing will be 0.5 per cent.