The Hindu Business Line : Govt changes norms for pepper import

THE modifications made to the Advance Licensing Committee (ALC) circular by the Directorate-General, Foreign Trade, is expected to bring in some positive impact on the pepper market. It may arrest diversion of imported pepper to the domestic market.

Following the changes made in the ALC during May-end, bulk imports would be impossible while exports and imports could not be done in splits, Mr S. Kannan, Director, Marketing, Spices Board, told Business Line on Thursday.

The All-India Spices Exporters Forum (AISEF) had represented on certain lacunae in the provisions in the advance licensing system on which the Spices Board had also been consistently pursuing for some time.

The loop-holes existed in the provisions were being exploited by some of the exporters by giving false declarations on the origin of pepper leading to the suspension of their registration.

Besides, it was alleged that lack of proper monitoring and imports and exports in split quantity had facilitated the entry of imported pepper into the domestic market.

The ALC after considering these issues in its meetings held on April 7 and May 27, decided to partially modify its circular No. 4/2003-04 dated November 21, 2003, in consultation with the Spices Board, Department of Revenue and with the approval of the DGFT.

The decision is that (i) the Regional Licensing Authority (RLA) will continue to forward a copy of the licence, the application and annexure furnished by the firm to the authority (Spices Board) mentioned in the said ALC Circular.

However, they shall not (except with respect to cases referred to at sub-para (ii)(a) here below) stipulate in the advance licences issued by them that the whole quantity specified in the licence shall be imported or re-exported as one consignment.

The condition that each ingredient should be separately imported for processing and re-export of spice product containing multiple ingredients also stands deleted.

(ii) The drawing of samples of spices by the field formations at the Customs, before these are sent to the Spices Board as laid down in para 2.1 of the said ALC circular, shall however, be, henceforth carried out as follows:

Import of spices for re-export to whole form with or without cleaning/grading/polishing/separating/sterilising: Samples shall be drawn from both import and export consignments and analysed for physical and chemical parameters to verify the nexus between imports and re-exports.

Import of spices for re-export after processes such as grinding/powdering/crushing/slicing/flaking/mixing/blending and/or extracting essential oils/oleoresins or food colours:

Sample shall be drawn from import consignments and analysed for physical and chemical parameters and the result thereof shall be used for verifying recovery/yield of material required to be re-exported and accounted for.

ALC had also said "in so far as spices are concerned the time limit of six months would mean `six months from the date of import or export (whichever occurs first)'.

The firm shall intimate the export/import (whichever occurs first) under registered cover to the RLA and DGFT headquarters. The facility of repeat licence without reference to the ALC allowed as per public notice 8 dated May 14, 2003 shall not be admissible in respect of licences for whole spices".

However, repeat licences would be allowed to be issued without reference to the ALC on value-added/processed spices, it added.

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