MULTAN, June 25: Some 'unscrupulous elements' at the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) have reportedly distracted some of the vital decisions taken by the agricultural pesticides technical advisory committee (Aptac) in its 36th meeting to rectify flaws in the rules regulating the pesticides business in the country.

In its 36th meeting held on May 31st last year, the Aptac had proposed certain amendments to the agricultural pesticides rules, 1973, to discourage profiteering and adulteration.

Salient features of the proposed amendments were: The importers/formulators should themselves undertake repacking of pesticides in retail packs before passing on to the distributors or dealers (as the case may be) with legal warranty of quality and quantity, all the registered/permitted pesticides may be sold under local brand/trade names and price mentioned on the label should the same as that of given on the invoice while paying government taxes and duties, including GST.

Moreover, the pesticides should be sold in the standard packing of 250, 500 and 1000ml/gm or in per acre dose instead of the deceptive packing of 360, 450, 800 and 900ml/gm. It was decided that the new rules of pesticides business would be enforced by November 1 last year.

However, the Minfal authorities kept on delaying implementation of the Aptac proposals by putting off their notification under one pretext or another until January this year. On Jan 13, the agriculture ministry though had issued an SRO 21(I)/2004 in compliance with the Aptac decisions, some of the proposals were missing, including standardized packing and the label price matching to the invoice price.

To incorporate the missing items, the Minfal authorities recently sent a draft SRO for publication to the Printing Corporation of Pakistan. According to the sources in Minfal, the draft SRO would not even befuddle the Aptac proposals but it would also provide an excuse to the money-minting pesticide mafia to exploit loopholes in the existing system for some more time.

Citing examples of the alleged distortions that were made part of the draft SRO, the sources said that the new chemistries imported under form-17 would automatically be shifted to form-1 after three years of their application in the field.

The sources said that form-1 category of the pesticides dealt only with the branded products whose global patent rights had yet to be expired and registration under this category had a separate criterion. Similarly, the pesticides registered once under form-1 would remain in this category for three years before placing on the form-16, which dealt with the products whose global patent right had expired and they were now available in the world under generic names.

The sources pointed out that the three-years indemnity to the products on form-1 was incorporated in the draft SRO without being decided at the relevant forum only to benefit a certain importer who had managed to get registered a popular product under form-1 last year against the fact that global patent rights of the product had been expired and it was now available in the international market under generic name.

Sources further pointed out that taking advantage of the 'controversial' move, some officials with vested interests in the agriculture ministry were likely to exclude a wheat herbicide from the generic list. The herbicide was put on the form-16 in March last along with two other products to allow their import under generic name.

Moreover, the draft SRO would also empower the director general of the plant protection department to allow three months relaxation to the pesticide firms from July 1, 2004, if any of them would feel problem in marketing the products in standard packing of 250, 500 and 1000ml/gm.

Sources said that all the measures being introduced through the SRO in the pipeline were nothing but to provide the 'pesticide mafia' another opportunity to rob the growers of their resources in the current cotton season.

It may be added here that 80 per cent of the pesticides imported in the country are used for the cotton crop. Last year, the cotton growers had to spray additional pesticides to the tune of Rs 4 billion in a futile bid to save their crop from the attack of American and Army bollworms.

Unveiling the economic survey for the year 2003-04, finance minister Shaukat Aziz had held pest attack on the cotton crop responsible for the agriculture sector's disappointing annual growth rate of 2.6 per cent.