Customs officials at the inland container depot in Ahmedabad in India now demand authentication of SAPTA certificate sent with the battery plate consignments.

Due to delay in submitting the certificate, Bangladeshi battery plate consignments remained stranded in Ahmedabad for last two weeks, local exporters said.

Earlier, there was no such requirement from the Indian customs.

Bangladesh Accumulator and Battery Manufacturers Association (BABMA) said the requirement of SAPTA certificate authentication is a new form of non-tariff barrier imposed by the Indian authorities to discourage imports from Bangladesh.

Sources said Rahimafrooz, a leading battery manufacturer in Bangladesh, has been exporting battery plates to India for the last couple of years. It exports 2-3 containers of battery plates a month.

Blaze Automotive of Ahmedabad is the importer of battery plates. Battery plate is used for manufacturing accumulator battery.

Iftikhar H Chowdhury, joint secretary of BABMA, told The Daily Star yesterday that signature authentication requirement is the latest non-tariff barrier from India apparently to block lead product exports from Bangladesh.

He said signature verification of SAPTA certificate has to be obtained from Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) which is a time consuming matter. Due to the delay, the importer has to pay demurrage charge, which ultimately falls on exporter's shoulder.

Exporters said when Bangladesh and India are planning to start negotiation on free trade agreement it is unfortunate that Indian customs has come up with new non-tariff barrier which is unnecessarily harassing Bangladeshi exporters.

On the pretext of dumping issue, India early this year slapped anti-dumping duty on Bangladeshi lead acid battery imports. Bangladeshi exporter Rahimafrooz also lost a legal battle in an Indian court on the issue.