Dyestuff makers seek imports' quality control

The Gujarat Dyestuff Manufacturers' Association (GDMA) has demanded that an independent authority be set up at ports to ensure stricter quality control of goods imported from various countries.

This demand comes in the wake of a chemical importer receiving a consignment of worthless material instead of the beta naphthol that he had ordered from a China-based company.

After taking up the matter with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), the Chinese embassy and other government agencies, the importer and GDMA have met with little success.

Mahesh Agrawal, promoter of the Ahmedabad-based Mahesh Raj Chemicals, has now gone to China to lodge a complaint against the company that supplied the goods.

The Naroda-based Mahesh Raj Chemicals, involved in the manufacture of dyes intermediaries, had sought six containers of beta naphthol from a Chinese company. The consignment involved 102 metric tonnes of beta naphthol, an organic chemical used in the manufacture of dyes intermediaries.

When the company received the consignment, it turned out that the entire consignment did not contain beta naphthol, but a powder that looked like it, said Mitesh Shah, export manager of Mahesh Raj Chemicals. The value of the consignment was $162,130.

"We sent the samples of the powder to the SGS Laboratories in Geneva and even to Lloyds Laboratories in Mumbai to ascertain its chemical nature. Although the reports are yet to be received, it has been established that there is no beta naphthol in the consignment. It appears that the consignment contains lime powder, which has practically no monetary value," said Shah.

Satish Shah, president of GDMA, said such fraudulent practices adopted by certain Chinese exporters tarnish the image of the country in the international market.

"Needless to say, this is not the first time that such an issue has arisen. There have been such cases in the past too, but the authorities do not seem to take any action," Shah said.

Shah said a delegation of GDMA made a representation to the DGFT and the Chinese embassy but they said they were helpless.