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Ayush cos raise objection over MSBB action for ABS recovery citing court directive
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Shardul Nautiyal, Mumbai
December 22 , 2016
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Ayush manufacturers in the state have raised objection about Maharashtra
State Biodiversity Board (MSBB) collecting royalty under access and
benefit sharing (ABS) compliance from Ayush companies in Maharashtra
citing court directive.
The Bombay High Court (HC) had sent
notices to the respondents namely National Biodiversity Authority (NBA),
MSBB, ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) and the state forest
ministry and directed them not to take coercive action against the
manufacturers taking into consideration a writ petition filed by Ayush
manufacturers in the Nagpur bench of Bombay HC which sought clarity on
whether Indian companies fall under ABS compliance.
The copy of
the notice which is with Pharmabiz states that MSBB has issued order to
pay ABS in response to the concerned manufacturer’s reply that writ
petition filed on behalf of manufacturers in the Bombay HC is pending
and therefore it is inappropriate to raise the demand notices for ABS.
MSBB has till date collected Rs.
9 lakh as royalty from Ayush manufacturers based on the access and
benefit sharing 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.
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.
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