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FSSA, a ploy to eat small Indian businesses, alleges TN food body member
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Wednesday, 14 September, 2011, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Irum Khan, Mumbai
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The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, implemented on August 5, 2011, is not conducive to Indian conditions in which food business operators function. It is developed for the Western world, and there is a serious doubt that the Act could be a strategically concocted plot of the West to wipe out the small businesses of Indian food manufacturers.
This was the fear expressed by a member of a delegation from the Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Agro Food Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which met Sharad Pawar, union minister of agriculture and food processing industries, in New Delhi, recently.
The motive was to urge Pawar to initiate talks with the health ministry, under which the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India falls, to review the implementation of the Act, given the untrained people in the local bodies, who shoulder the responsibility of enforcement and the shabby government infrastructure employed to execute the provision of the Act.
S Rethinavelu, president, Agro-Food Chamber of Commerce, informed FnB News that small industrialists were not aware about the Rules of the Act.
As the Act brings into its ambit all stakeholders involved in production, manufacturing, trading, storing and transportation of food, it might lead to innocents becoming scapegoats at the hands of food inspectors / food safety officers, Rethinavelu feared.
"For example, the Act entails to bring water used for manufacturing under scanner. We use the water supplied by the local bodies. This water is most of the time contaminated. Who will shoulder the responsibility in such circumstances,"Rethinavelu asked.
He said that it was imperative to educate consumers and hold a number of discussions before executing the Rules and Regulations. The way the Act has to be implemented needs a lot of discussion as the fine levied is as huge as Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.
The Chamber asked Pawar to implement the Act only after April 2014 after incorporating necessary changes and also creating adequate awareness and providing requisite training not only to traders and producers in cities but also in villages. It said the Act was stringent, harsh and impracticable to follow.
Pawar in turn agreed that the Act could severely affect the business of small operators if implemented in the literal sense. He assured that he would speak to health minister Azad about the same.
Further, the chamber urged Pawar that products from "Farm to Fork" should be tax exempted under VAT and GST. "Many states in our country offer VAT exemption to food grains so as to keep their prices in check for the welfare of the consuming public. However this tax exemption benefit should be extended to processed foods also i.e. from "Farm to Fork" both under VAT and GST so that the benefit to the common man is complete and unqualified," it said.
The Chamber has itemised some of such serious implications:
- At a time when restrictions on stock limits, licencing requirements and transportation have been removed in states like Tamil Nadu to facilitate hassle-free supply of essential food articles of daily use like rice, wheat, edible oil, sugar etc., the new Act makes it obligatory for food business operators from street vendors to those engaged in food processing and dealers of food products to register or obtain licenses under the Act, to carry on their activities, thus restoring the dreadful "Inspector Raj" in the country.
- The new Act and Regulations provide harsh punishment even for small infringements and omissions which would not cause any harm to the health of the ultimate consumers.
Penalty from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh and jail term from 6 months to 7 years are prescribed for transgression of the provisions of the Act.
- No guidelines are given for fixing the quantum of punishment for offences under the Act by the courts.
Enforcement of the Act and Regulations, would breed corruption more than preventing food adulteration. Honest traders and producers of agriculture-based products would be forced to close their business in apprehension of the stringent provision in the Act.
- Implementation of the mandatory obligations of the Act would increase business expenses and cause enhancement of the prices of food products. Farmers would also be severely impacted.
-- Complying with such rigorous requirements and rules by food business operators is possible only in places where the local bodies remove wastages and rubbish expeditiously daily and supply potable drinking water and maintain clean and healthy environment. In other words these conditions could be complied with only in developed countries.
As pointed out recently by the member of the Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission and former vice-chancellor of Anna University E Balagurusamy, in our country where 200 million people go to bed hungry, 300 million people live below poverty line, 400 million people illiterate, 70 per cent of the people have no sanitation facilities and 30 per cent have no access to potable drinking water, it will not be possible for us to become a developed nation by the year 2020 as prophesised by former President A P J Abdul Kalam.
- So how can we enforce such an Act? Under such circumstances, these impracticable regulations and conditions are unseemly injudicious and definitely not compliable in our country. They will only tend to severely impede availability of food products then and there to the consumers at large.
Ground reality should be understood before enactment and enforcement of any law.
- In the definition of Food Business, in Section 3 (n) the word "transportation" should be removed as food business operators do not carry out any transportation activities as transportation is carried out only by the transport operators. How can the lorry transporters would be able to check up the quality before accepting for transportation.
- As per section 38 (6) of the FSS Act 2006, the Food Safety Officer is authorised to take samples of any adulterant found in possession of the food processor even during pre-processing stage. Food grains and pulses are transported to the food processors in bulk quantities in lorries and goods wagons. Such lorries and good wagons also transport base products like cement and coal. The processors should not be penalised for particles of such products found in the sample. Such extraneous matters will get automatically removed after cleaning, grading and sorting processes. Hence samples should be taken from the food processors only after these processes are completed and not from the raw material. Similarly water kept for cooking would be boiled before using and hence such water supplied by the local bodies should not be subjected to testing.
- Powers granted to seize any books of account or other documents found in possession of Food Business Operator under sub-clause (6) of Sec. 38 of FSS Act, 2006, should be removed as the duty of the Food Safety Officer is to deal with food products only.
- Food Safety Officer may inspect the premises at any time to confirm whether the products manufactured are in accordance with the FSS Act & Rules made thereunder. Otherwise, the Food Safety Officer may get copies of the records from the Food Business Operator instead of seizing the records.
- If the books of accounts were seized by the Food Safety
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