To assist the Indian ASU manufacturers in addressing their issues arising out of customs delay, Pharmaceuticals Exports Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) is planning to have a meeting with the representatives from the department of collection of excise duty and service tax, falling under the Ministry of Finance. Through this initiative, the Council hopes to clear the bottlenecks that  Indian ASU manufacturers have been facing at the customs department at various ports in India, affecting the exports of the industry at large.

It was recently bought to the attention of Pharmaexcil that there was considerable delay in procuring quality clearance of export consignments for Ayush exporters, which is leading to unnecessary loss and causing severe dent to the reputation of the Indian industry. A highly placed source from the industry pointed out that their biggest issue stems from the fact that the customs office at the airports and various other ports does not have adequate and suitable testing facility to handle the samples of the Ayush products collected at the ports.

It is understood that currently due to lack of testing facility suitable to address the needs of the Ayush products at the ports, the collected samples are sent to labs far away having requisite facilities. While the samples are sent away for testing, which takes anywhere between 15 to 20 days to get teased, the export consignments gets stuck at the port for that long stretch, impacting the business interest of the exporters.

According to Dr P V Appaji, director general of Pharmexcil, the council has already noted the gravity of the issue and is seriously contemplating to act on addressing the same by discussing this matter with the appropriate body. “There is a huge potential in the Ayush products in international markets and we cannot afford to let the reputation of the industry suffer and affect the exports due to unnecessary delay in exports. We will do all in our capacity to sit with the customs officials and discuss other alternatives to help the Ayush exporters,” he informed.

Giving further information he said that the Council is planning to request the customs department to release the export consignments stuck at the ports post sample collection to its desired destination under a bond and affidavit, to ensure that there is no unnecessary delay in dispatching the consignments. The provision of releasing the export consignments on bonds and affidavit is already in practice for certain consignments and just needs to be utilized for Ayush products as well for the time being.