IMPORTERS who are caught with illegal and unregulated pesticides will have to face the penalties which include legal charges.

The Pesticides and Toxic Chemical Control Board (PTCCB) intends on enforcing the law which allows the board to pursue legal charges against persons who import illegal and unregulated pesticides.

“Last year was a good year in terms of enforcement work and in terms of addressing illegalities in the agriculture sector… some of the things in terms of what is the next step for this year is pursuing what is provided for in the Constitution,” said PTCCB Registrar, Trecia David, during an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle on Monday.
The board had its first court case on Tuesday but intends on pursuing more legal options when dealing with delinquents.

“There needs to be a stronger message to limit the smuggling of illegal pesticides… once we confiscate it, they suffer losses but some go back and do the same thing, so we want to let the law be used as a deterrent to this,” said David, adding that Guyana racks up a hefty cost to dispose of illegal and unregulated pesticides which are seized.
The legal charges against persons will be used as a “polluter pay” principle, said Senior PTCCB inspector, Suresh Amichand.

Disposal of confiscated items should not be a burden to the State and Amichand believes that the delinquents should be paying for the disposal.

Despite employing various measures to deal with the smuggling of illegal pesticides, Amichand said the authority would always encounter the problem because of Guyana’s porous borders.

In order to improve vigilance at the borders, the PTCCB has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to effectively manage the ports.

“In terms of what is seized, we just do not want to do it in the context of blocking business because we could always have the pesticides registered, once they are tested and proven not to be harmful,” said David.