Importer License and Everything that You Need to Know About It

Importer license is a permission issued by the legal metrology department to import weights and measuring products into the country. As a legal registration, this license is quite niche. However, when you look deeper, it’s importance supersedes every other import business license in India.

How? Simply put, all the products rely on measuring instruments. And as the manufacturing industry in India is relatively at a budding stage, imported instruments are what Indian industry  rely upon. That’s why, if there is one license that you should always look into, it’s the importer license.

 This article puts into perspective the importance of importer license in India and answers the following questions:

1. What is importer license?
2. What is the cost of importer license?
3. How can you obtain it?

What is importer license?

Importer license or importer registration exists as per the Section 19 of the Legal Metrology Act, 2009. According to this act, those who wish to import weights and measuring items in India have to obtain specialized import registration to do so.

The eligibility criteria of obtaining the license is as follows:

1. The applicant should comply to the packaged commodity rules when it comes to filing the application form.
2. The applicant should provide the right documents
3. The weights and measuring instrument to be imported should have approval from the regulatory body of its country of origin.

What is the cost of import license in India?

For import license, the cost you have to bear comes in two forms.

1. The governmental cost: The governmental cost of registration of importers of weights and measuring instruments vary from product to product. For instance, the application processing fee of a simple weighing scale would be different as compared to import license for medical devices in India.
2. The professional cost: Now comes the cost of filing the application form. While you’re free to fill the application form and submit the essential documents yourself, we advise you to not do so. The nuances of details that you need to enter in the application form coupled with the arduous and often confusing documentation makes the process difficult. That’s why you need to hire professionals. The best professionals would render you their services at reasonable price.

Read More Licenses: Insurance Self Network Platform 

What is the process of obtaining the importer registration

The procedure of obtaining importer registration consists of the following steps:

1. Documentation: First comes documentation. At this stage, you need to put together a file in which you’ll put the following documents:
   1. Display pane or label that you’ll put on the package of your imported product.
   2. Certificate of incorporation of your company or something similar depending upon the nature of your business entity
   3. Other business registrations you’re required to obtain to run your business
   4. Import and Export Code
   5. Demand Draft of the application processing fee.
2. Fill the application form: Fill the application form. For now, the application process is not online. Thus, you’d need to physically fill the application form. Make sure to not make errors when doing so, because unlike the online application, there is no backspace button to fix your mistakes.
3. Submit the documents to the Legal Metrology Department: Submit the duly-filled application form and the documents at the office of Legal Metrology.

Once the department accepts your application, it would start processing it. Depending upon the intricacies of the product you’re trying to import, and the application’s correctness, you shall obtain the import license within the next 30 days of filing it. If it takes any more time, you should take a step back and hire a consultant as soon as possible.