The Maharashtra State Biodiversity Board (MSBB) has managed to collect Rs.9 lakh as royalty from Ayush manufacturers based on the access and benefit sharing (ABS) compliance as per the provisions of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.

It is required to share benefit among concerned Biodiversity Management Committees (BMC) of the state for sustainable use of bio-resources as per Biological Diversity (BD) Act, 2002, as per a MSBB notice served to around 600 manufacturers in the state. The notice also states that MSBB has the mandate to collect ABS payment under the provisions of BD Act, 2002.

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 Rs.3 crore, it would be 0.2 per cent, for above Rs.3 crore turn over, the benefit sharing will be 0.5 per cent.

Around 98 Ayush companies have also registered with MSBB to share details of the bio-resources procured for commercial utilisation. As per the BD Act, manufacturers are accountable to share details of the source from where raw material has been procured in Form I and further submission of the same to MSBB.

As per the BD Act, around 95 per cent of ABS will be given to BMC for sustainable development of bio-resources. Thus industries can be associated with the local people from where bio-resources are obtained to get continuous supply of bio-resources in perpetuity.

As per a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order, ABS is applicable to bio-resources from agriculture or forest area. An agriculture bio-resource when utilised for general commodities, no ABS is applicable. However, when utilised for commercial purposes for use in drugs and cosmetic products, ABS is applicable to it. ABS is also applicable for access to biological resources, bio-survey and bio-utilisation for commercial utilisation.

Member-secretary of MSBB Dr Dilip Singh had also issued notices to defaulting traders and manufacturers in response to non-payment of ABS to MSBB as commercial utilisation of bio-resources is tantamount to violation of Section 2(c) (f) and Section 7 of Biological Diversity Act, 2002.