India to defer PA import certification requirements

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–India will further defer the implementation of a mandatory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification requirement on all PA imports for another 180 days, according to a notice issued by the Indian Ministry of Chemical and Fertilisers last week.

India had earlier planned to roll out this requirement on 17 January 2021, based on a prior government notice issued in October 2020.

India introduced in 2019 the BIS rule on several products like caustic soda and polymers, making it clear too that the rule will be broadened over time to cover more chemicals, including PA.

The BIS for PA was initially scheduled to take effect from H2 October 2020, but the government announced on 20 October 2020 that the roll-out date would be deferred to 17 January 2021.

But with international travel still constrained by the global coronavirus pandemic, BIS certification processes for overseas PA suppliers have been hampered to-date, triggering anxieties in turn among Indian market players that PA imports to the country would be disrupted if BIS is enforced on time, before regular foreign suppliers are certified.

India is an active importer of PA, taking in more than 170,000 tonnes in 2019,  and it has imported more than 110,000 tonnes too between January-October 2020, data from the ICIS Supply and Demand Database shows.