Dear Friends,
I have been selling Herbal Medicines and Skin Care products on eBay since last 5 years. I started from 1 order and in a week and grew to 50 orders per day in a span of 5 years.
Every year, there is a customs issue at Mumbai where the shipments are detained and people selling herbal products are asked to provide an ADC NOC. This issue arises whenever there is a new Customs Commissoner who would ask for these details. Until January 2014, such issues got resolved by meeting the concerned officer, discussing our mode of business with them and showing the samples of the products that we sell on eBay. However, this time, the issue is just not getting resolved. It has been more than 60 days and we are still unable to sell.
I have visited multiple times, the Mumbai Customs Office at Sahar, Ville Parle and Ballard Pier, Mumbai FDA Office, CDSCO Office at Mumbai and CDSCO Office at Ahmedabad and met all the highly placed influencial Govt. Officers to seek an answer to this issue. However, I have not received any correct response from any of these offices.
As per AYUSH, an ADC NOC is needed for every shipment containing chemical, medicines, herbal products or medical device. Hence, an ADC NOC is applicable to all the Dabur, Himalaya, Zandu, Baba Ramdev products etc.
Now, in order to get an ADC NOC, following things are needed: Drug License, Export License, Purchase Bills and Most Importantly, a COA giving the details that the Heavy Metals are within permissible limit. The product label should also not mention that it is for sale in India only.. Due to these requirements, it becomes impossible for a small scale online seller to obtain an NOC.
The ADC NOC can be waived off solely upon the discretion of the Customs Officer or an ADC himself can endorse that an NOC is not needed for such products.
However, the Mumbai Customs is not willing to waive off the ADC NOC requirement and at the same time the ADC asks for the COA to issue an NOC.
Due to this, it is now not possible for any eBay seller from Gujarat, Maharashtra, MP, AP or Goa to do a cross border trade of herbal products. Along with me, several other online seller and eBay sellers have met the Customs as well as the CDSCO repeated number of times but there is no resolution so far.....
Since an ADC NOC is a legal requirement, sooner or later, it can impact other ports also.
Hence, take care before you venture into this segment...
Kind Regards,
Mustufa Baldiwala
