Emboldened by the dismissal of petition by the Madras High Court against the implementation of barcode on pharma exports, the union commerce ministry is all set to implement barcoding on secondary packaging from January 1, 2013 and that on primary packaging from July 1, 2013.

Refuting media reports that the ministry may further extend the implementation of barcoding by at least another three months, senior officials in the union commerce ministry categorically said that there are no reasons for further extension as the ministry has given enough time to the industry to switch over to the new system ever since the ministry came out with a notification in this regard around two years ago.

“We have given extensions on two-three occasions since we issued the notification on January 10, 2011 for implementing barcoding for the exporters. By now, the industry should have been ready to implement it instead of go on buying time,” a senior official in the commerce ministry said.

Meanwhile, the officials squarely blamed the Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA) for failing to come up with a proposal to provide some short term relaxation to the small scale industries (SSIs) in implementing the new track and trace technology, which is being implemented by the ministry for the avowed purpose of putting a check on the exports of spurious drugs from the country.

“Even though the ministry has directed the IDMA to come up with a proposal to relax the norms for the SSIs, the IDMA did not submit any such proposal to the ministry so far,” officials said.

However, the officials further said that the ministry will sympathetically consider a proposal even at this stage for the SS Is if the industry comes up with a proposal.