The Tamil Nadu government has accorded permission to the state drugs control administration to fix and collect fees towards the services rendered by the DCA for issuance of various certificates which are not covered under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 (D&C Act). The state government has issued an order in this regard last week.


The amount thus collected will be utilized for the development of the department. The department will issue receipts for the collected amount, said M Rajendran, director of drugs control.


Majority of the certificates are useful for exporters and those who are participating in the tenders. So the new policy is applicable only to those units which are involved in exporting businesses. Tamil Nadu is the third state in the country to collect such fees from the exporters after Karnataka and Maharashtra, he said.


“Hitherto all the certificates were issued freely, now on more than 12 certificates will come under chargeable items. The request for collecting fees has been on the cards for the last five years and now the government has granted permission to collect it. The new policy has come into force from July 27 onwards,” the director told Pharmabiz.


As per the order, an exporting company has to pay Rs. 300 for getting Quality and Capacity certificate and Rs. 100 for Validity certificate. For GMP certificate and Marketing Standing Certificate, the exporter should remit Rs. 300 each.


Certificates for non conviction, manufacturing & marketing, performance and for COPP will be issued on remittance of Rs. 300 each. For free sale certificate, the manufacturing unit will have to pay only Rs. 100, but for Approval of technical staff or change of brand names, Rs. 500 should be remitted.


In the proposal given by the department to the government, the highest fee is fixed for issuance WHO GMP certificates for each product and the amount fixed is Rs. 1000.