Seeds of herbaceous plants cultivated principally for their flowers

CHAPTER 12

OIL SEEDS AND OLEAGINOUS FRUITS; MISCELLANEOUS GRAINS, SEEDS AND FRUIT; INDUSTRIAL OR MEDICINAL PLANTS; STRAW AND FODDER.

NOTES:

1. Heading 1207 applies, inter alia, to palm nuts and kernels, cotton seeds, castor oil seeds, sesamum seeds, mustard seeds, safflower seeds, poppy seeds and shea nuts (karite nuts). It does not apply to products of heading 0801 or 0802 or to olives (Chapter 07 or Chapter 20).

2. Heading 1208 applies not only to non-defatted flours and meals but also to flours and meals which have been partially defatted or defatted and wholly or partially refatted with their original oils. It does not, however, apply to residues of headings 2304 to 2306.

3. For the purposes of heading 1209, beet seeds, grass and other herbage seeds, seeds of ornamental flowers, vegetable seeds, seeds of forest trees, seeds of fruit trees, seeds of vetches (other than those of the species Vicia faba) or of lupines are to be regarded as “seeds of a kind used for sowing”. Heading 1209 does not, however, apply to the following even if for sowing:

(a) Leguminous vegetables or sweet corn (Chapter 07);

(b) Spices or other products of Chapter 09;

(c) Cereals (Chapter 10); or

(d) Products of headings 1201 to 1207 or 1211.

4. Heading 1211 applies, inter alia, to the following plants or parts thereof: basil, borage, ginseng, hyssop, liquorice, all species of mint, rosemary, rue, sage and wormwood. Heading 1211 does not, however, apply to:

(a) Medic aments of Chapter 30;

(b) Perfumery, cosmetic or toilet preparations of Chapter 33; or

(c) Insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, disinfectants or similar products of heading 3808.

5. For the purposes of heading 1212, the term “seaweeds and other algae” does not include:

(a) Dead single-cell micro-organisms of heading 2102;

(b) Cultures of micro-organisms of heading 3002; or

(c) Fertilizers of heading 3101 or 3105.

SUB-HEADING NOTE:
For the purposes of sub-heading 1205 10, the expression “low erucic acid rape or colza seeds” means rape or colza seeds yielding a fixed oil which has an erucic acid content of less than 2% by weight and yielding a solid component which contains less than 30 micromoles of glucosinolates per gram.

POLICY CONDITIONS:

(1) Plants and parts of plants (including seeds and fruits), of a kind used primarily in perfumery, in pharmacy or for insecticidal, fungicidal or similar purposes, fresh or dried, whether or not, crushed or powdered as covered under Exim Code 12.11, import of which has been shown as restricted and which are not covered by the list mentioned in licensing note 2 below, may be permitted freely by the Actual Users without an import license subject to plant protection quarantine certificate. However, import of opium (papaver species), cannabis (cannabis species) and coca(erythroxylon species) shall not be permitted. This free importability shall not be applicable to the items, poppy, flowers and unripe heads of dried poppy, psyllium husk (isobgul), psyllium seed (isobgul), poppy husk and jojoba seed.

(2) Import of Crude Drugs required for making Ayurvedic, Unani or any other system of medicine as listed below is permitted freely.

(3) Import of Poppy Seeds (Exim Code No. 1207 91 00) shall be allowed subject to the following conditions:

a) Import permitted only from Australia, Austria, France, China, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey and Czech
Republic, United Kingdom, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Macedonia, Germany and Ukraine;

b) The importer shall produce an appropriate certificate from the competent authority of the exporting country that Opium Poppy have been grown legally in that country; and

c) All import contracts for this item shall compulsorily be registered with the Narcotics Commissioner, Gwalior prior to import in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Department of Revenue, which may, inter – alia, include fixing of country caps, imposing quantitative restriction, if any, per importer or any other relevant provisions as deemed necessary for implementation of National Policy on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.

(4) Import permitted for sowing without a licence subject to the new Policy on Seed Development, 1988 and in accordance with import permit granted under Plant Quarantine (Regulation of Imports into India) Order, 2003.

(5) Import of Salab misri (Orchis laxiflora) required for the manufacture of Ayurvedic, Unani or any other system of medicine shall be subject to the provisions of Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna & Flora (CITES).