The Union commerce ministry has deferred the date of effect of implementation of barcoding on mono-cartons as secondary level packaging on export consignment of pharmaceuticals and drugs for tracing and tracking purpose to April 1, 2015.

The date of implementation of bar-coding on mono-carton packaging as mentioned at Sl. No. 3(i) b of Public Notice No. 62(RE 2013)/2009-2014 dated 26.06.2014 will come into effect from April 1, 2015, Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Pravir Kumar said.

As per Public Notice No. 62 dated 26.06.2014, mono cartons are to be treated as part of secondary level packaging and accordingly the requirement of affixing bar-codes on mono-carton as secondary level packaging became effective from 26.06.2014. Now the effective date of affixing bar-codes on mono-carton as secondary level packaging has been deferred to April 1, 2015. There shall be no other change in Public Notice No. 62 dated 26.06.2014, the DGFT further said.

Earlier in June this year, the commerce ministry had deferred the implementation of barcoding on export consignment of pharmaceuticals and drugs on primary level packaging till further notification from the ministry. The requirement of affixing barcodes on primary level packaging was to be effective from 01.07.2014. Now this date has been deferred till a new date is notified by the ministry.

However, in a significant decision that will have adverse impact on the exporters, the ministry had notified that the mono cartons will be treated as secondary level packaging. Earlier through Public Notice No. 31 dated 17.10.2013, mono cartons were to be treated as part of primary level packaging. Now this has been modified to treat mono cartons as secondary level packaging, the DGFT in its notification dated June 26, 2014 has said.