MULTAN, May 6: The Pakistan Crop Protection Association, a body representing a number of pesticides’ importers in the country, has urged the government to help remove ‘snags’ hampering smooth operation of the business.
Speaking at a press conference here on Saturday, PCPA chairman Chaudhry Mushtaq and secretary-general Dr Shafiq Pitafi accused the Department of Plant Protection of unnecessarily delaying new registrations and issuance of the NoCs for the clearance of imported products.
They said that ‘bureaucratic bottlenecks’ at the DPP had already forced some seven importers of pesticides to put off trading in farm chemicals. They said although the importers clearly mentioned the name of manufacturers from whom they had bought the product, the DPP authorities wanted verification of the makers before the issuance of NoCs.
DPP director general Allah Rakha Aasi explained that his department registered a product against a sample supplied by the manufacturer, who was mentioned by the importer in the documents he submitted along with his application. “Under the law, the product must be imported from the same manufacturer whose name is mentioned in the registration,” he said, adding “but after getting it registered against one manufacturer, the importer starts unlawfully importing the product from various sources/manufacturers, including those who are not registered in the country.”
He said the DPP would soon introduce a ‘fast track’ policy to issue registrations to new applicants within 48 hours against the products of manufacturers who were already registered in the country. The DPP DG said to expedite release of the imported pesticides on reaching the Pakistani soil, his department now had started taking random sampling of only 20 per cent of the consignments contrary to the previous practice of 100 per cent testing before the issuance of an NoC.
He said a meeting of Agricultural Pesticides Technical Advisory Committee was scheduled to be held on May 11 and his department would suggest some more progressive measures to address problems of the importers but without compromising on quality and standards. — Correspondent