Even though the Union commerce ministry has deferred the implementation of barcoding on mono cartons to April 1, 2015, the exporters in the country are annoyed over the ministry's decision to treat mono cartons as secondary level packaging instead of the earlier position of treating mono cartons as primary level packaging.

Enraged over the issue, the exporters have now demanded to the commerce ministry to reinstate mono cartons as primary level packaging for barcoding as the sudden change in the government policy would lead to major hurdles to the exporters, especially because in many of the mono cartons, it is not possible to print 2D barcode due to the space constraints.

According to the exporters, as the number of mono cartons are large in almost every consignment, this will prove to be a huge burden to the manufacturers by way of huge investments in barcoding.   

The exporters' demand in this regard comes in the backdrop of the fact that the commerce ministry in a notification dated June 26, 2014 had notified that the mono cartons would be treated as secondary level packaging.  Earlier, through Public Notice No. 31 dated 17.10.2013, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) had announced that mono cartons would be treated as part of primary level packaging.  

While barcoding on secondary level packaging for export has become mandatory from 26.06.2014, the requirement of affixing barcodes on primary level packaging, which was to be effective from 01.07.2014, has now been deferred till a new date is notified by the ministry.  There is a feeling among the exporters that the ministry may not ever implement barcoding on primary level packaging. So, the industry wanted the ministry to retain mono cartons as primary level packaging for barcoding, otherwise if mono cartons are revised as secondary level packaging, exporters will have to go through the whole process of having to seek approval from overseas customers and the regulatory authorities of each of the importing countries for changing the art works of the pack.

According to the exporters, mono-cartons such as blisters and strips are generally packed as 10 x 10s, which are packed within a carton and never sent loose. When the outside carton is covered under barcoding, it is unnecessary to again provide the barcoding on the mono cartons inside.