Just imagine you have imported the goods and custom department detain your goods in absence of LMPC certificate. You can say for last 20 years, I am importing without LMPC Certificate but now the custom has started to ask for same. As the custom detains the goods, it becomes quite expensive due to demurrage.
As per LM Act, it is compulsory that any person who deals in any packaged commodity should get registered under Regulation 27.
With this we will try to go in detail about LM Act
One of the chapter in LM Act which deals with pre packaged commodity known as packaged commodity rules. This rule describe what is prepackaged commodity regulation.
The packaged commodity Act defines a pre-packaged commodity as “a commodity which, without the purchaser being present, is placed in a package of whatever nature, whether sealed or not, so that the product contained therein has a pre-determined quantity”. So any product which is in packaged form and having intention for retail sale will come into this.
What exactly is its relevance in application to pre-packaged goods?
The LM Department ensure that every product should contain basic information about product which help consumer to know what he is buying and whether he is paying fair price for the product.
How we should get LMPC Certificate?
All importers make an application to the Director of Legal Metrology in the Central government or the Controller of Legal Metrology in the state to have their name and address registered. After registering the name in their register and grant the LMPC certificate. As on today, the LMPC registration is one time activity An LMPC certificate is government certificate which can be utilized at many places for verification that you deal in packaged commodities Act from so much years.
The importer will submit the certificate to custom department at the time of import and will confirm that all products which have been imported are in compliances with the Act.
Importers must ensure their pre-packaged goods carry a declaration with the following information:
• Name and address of the importer
• Name and address of the manufacturer
• Common or generic name of commodity contained in the package
• Country of origin of the commodity
• Net quantity in terms of standard unit of weight, measurement, or number
• Month and year of import
• Month and year of manufacture
• Expiry date, if applicable
• Maximum retail price (MRP)
• Per pcs/ l /ml/g/kg price
• Dimensions of the commodity, if relevant
• Name, address, and telephones number (and email address, if available) of person/office to be contacted in case of customer complaints
The declaration can be printed in Hindi or English. And, there are rules specifying how the declaration should look like.