"Come, make in India. Come, manufacture in India. Sell in any country of the world but manufacture here. We have got skill, talent, discipline, and determination to do something. " - this was the appeal made by the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India in his maiden independence day address on 15 August, 2014 .

Fast forward 2020-21, the ball has actually started rolling with various Atmanirbhar Bharat (Make-in-India) initiatives being actually kick started and implemented in full spirit by the Government of India (GOI). One such initiative was mandatory declaration of the name of country of origin ("COI") on all imported products. The requirement was made mandatory in 2018 by amending the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 however, momentum in enforcement is catching up now.

Recently on 10 August, 2021, the Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha informed that the Department of Consumer Affairs had issued 183 notices in the past one year to e-commerce entities for violation of provisions pertaining to display of COI declaration. We provide below a timeline on COI declaration action and associated make-in-India initiatives taken by GOI.

Timeline - COI Declaration

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Recent Trend

Now the question arises that although the COI declaration requirement was made effective in 2018 itself and e-commerce entities were allegedly given extension until September 30, 2020 to comply with it, why has the requirement being enforced strictly now in this year by the legal metrology department.

It seems that the only reason for the issue to resurface now is due to accelerated promotion of indigenous manufacturing. In this regard, it is pertinent to point out the introduction of few of the below-mentioned initiatives by GOI, which indicates the growing trend and shift towards local manufacturing and reducing import dependency.

  1. Compulsory DPIIT registration requirement in public procurement: As detailed in our earlier update, the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance vide its office memorandum and following Order (Public Procurement No. 1) mandated registration with the DPIIT for all bidders who are participating in public procurement and are from a country, which shares land border with India. This was issued on the grounds of defence and/or national security considerations. Immediately thereafter, the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), the public procurement platform for government buyers, made it mandatory for sellers to enter COI for all its products.
  2. Introduction of PPP-MII Order: The Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017 ("PPP-MII Order"), which was last revised on 16 September 2020 is another initiative by GOI to encourage "Make in India" and promote domestic manufacturing. The PPP-MII Order made only Class-I and Class-II local suppliers (having local content ) 50% and ) 20% respectively) eligible to bid in public procurements for bids below INR 200 crores, with purchase preference being given to Class-I local supplier. In pursuance to the PPP-MII Order, GeM also enabled a provision for indicating the percentage of local content in GeM registered product, in terms of PPP-MII Order. With these features on the GeM portal, government buyers could filter and choose to buy make-in-India products.
  3. Introduction of PLI Scheme: Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme was launched to boost domestic manufacturing and with the aim to make it globally competitive, reduce import dependency and generate domestic employment opportunities. This scheme incentivises incremental sales from products manufactured in India over the base year. The Union Cabinet had approved the introduction of PLI schemes in 13 key sectors. We had in our earlier update provided a summary of PLI scheme on one of the key sector that is, high efficiency solar PV modules.

Conclusion

In view of the above, it is apparent that GOI is indeed serious about its commitment on making India the new global manufacturing hub and discouraging/reducing its import dependency, especially with those countries which share land borders with India (owing to defence and national security considerations) and upon whom India was heavily reliant on for its import. It is therefore advisable for all importers, manufacturers, dealers, sellers and/or resellers offering imported goods through a marketplace e-commerce entity, to adhere to the requirements under Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 (as amended), including displaying 'country of origin' declaration, prominently on the imported products in the digital platform.

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