In a universal context, an importer license is the document issued by a government authority to import certain products within a territory. For India’s legal metrology regulations, it is the license to import weights and measuring products.
Despite its importance, import license is not well known. Furthermore, certain facts are too enigmatic to find a place in the official regulations. Therefore, it’s our duty to convey you the facts about its regulatory restrictions for integrity’s sake.
Importer license is not importer registration
People often confuse importer license with importer registration. And they’re not at fault. Both of them follow the conventions of LMPC certificate and both of them abide by the universal definition of the license. For the longest time, even we believed it to the be the case.
However, scrounging through the official notification opened our eyes to the truth. Both certificates are different.
In the case of import license, the permission is for the import of weights and measuring products.
In case of importer registration, the permission is for the import of every packaged product.
So, does that mean one requires both to get complete importing rights? Take a look at the next fact.
It is not just to get this certificate
It’s the pain of the license-ruled regimen of India that has caused great pains to the entrepreneurs. One would think that a single license would resolve all the issues.
Take the case of import license. It imerely gets after the Legal metrology department tests how the product is packaged? Correctness of the product’s readings has nothing to do with this permission. And the reason is the pre-requisite of this license.
Model Approval is stamp of satisfaction that legal metrology puts on weights and measuring products that are fit to use in India. It’s a mandatory stamp that not only is required for manufacturers, but importers as well.
Thus, prior to getting license to import weights & measuring products, an importer needs the model approval.
Furthermore, as per the LMPC rules, importer registration is also mandatory.
The process is completely offline
Even though there exist a website for Legal metrology department, there is no online procedure to obtain this license. If an applicant wishes to obtain it, he or she has to go through the offline method of :
- Buying the application form,
- Furnishing the physical documents, and
- Submitting the application.
It’s not a process that entrepreneurs would consider convenient. However, it is a regulatory roadblock that one has to cross to import dimension-measuring products in India
Furthermore, the importer license procedure falls under LMPC registration conventions. It means that similar to the process to obtain the packer license, the steps to obtain this license is as follows:
- Furnishing the requisite documents, which are:
- Certificate of incorporation;
- Import Export Code;
- Model Approval Certificate;
- Sample of the display pane;
- Technical specifications of the product; and
- A declaration stating that the information provided in the application is correct.
- Demand draft of the import license cost
- Application filing.
- Offline application submission.
- Thorough assessment of the application form.
- Grant of the license.
Conclusion
In conclusion, import license is an inconvenience. They rightly so consider that getting it is redundant courtesy of the existence of other licenses within the same department that follow the same regulations. Despite that, these facts are trying to hint you about completion of regulatory restrictions. The more positively you approach this license, the more you will manage to make it as relevant as its universal definition. Read more about this topic(on Post Puff).
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