Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: The Indian government has set a new high quality typical for the domestic producers of polyethylene to adhere to.
Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals beneath the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers issued an order dated April 15, 2021 that tends to make it mandatory for petrochemical producers of particular types of polymers to meet the new criteria set by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
The order is applicable to 3 types of polyethylene material, the raw material utilized for producing several plastic items: low-density polyethylene (LDPE) (extensively used to make grocery bags and packaging material) linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) (utilized in producing stronger bags, toys, buckets, pipes) and higher-density polyethylene (HDPE) (jugs, plastic bottles, mugs, shampoo bottles).
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The new typical titled “Specification of Polyethylene Material for Moulding and Extrusion” is labelled beneath Indian typical IS 7328:2020.
The business is of the opinion that meeting these requirements is not an problem and companies have the technical know-how and infrastructure but the Order will fail to meet its goal.
Arvind Goenka, Chairman of trade body for plastic exporters Plastics Export Promotion Council (PLEXCONCIL) told TheSpuzz Online that the rationale of the order was to curb imports and strengthen the high quality of plastic items in the nation.
But, this Order will achieve neither target. He explained, “Setting the quality standards on the raw materials would still allow cheap quality plastic finished goods to be imported into the country.” In truth, the more compliance will raise the price of domestically developed polyethylene and as a outcome of the completed items placing domestic manufactures at a disadvantage more than importers, he stated.
Plus, the raw material in itself does not assure that the completed solution will be of the preferred high quality. It depends on various other elements such as additives utilized and even the method of manufacturing.
There is also a requirement for overseas importers to get a licence to assure that their solution conforms to the new requirements imposed by the BIS. It need to be noted that India is a net importer of these items and the more compliance may dissuade quite a few suppliers to export to India. “India already faces a shortage of these products and the Order might dissuade many exporters in the US and the Gulf countries, especially the smaller players, to send their products to India,” stated Goenka.
He added, “The government should perhaps have started with other raw materials such as Polypropylene (PP) where India is self-sufficient and gradually expand to other products.”
This order will be enforced immediately after 180 dates from the date of publication of the official gazette. It is only applicable for domestic petrochemical companies and not Indian exporters.