Troubled by FSSA licensing procedure hurdles, FBOs seek early redressal

The new Food Safety and Standards Act has come into effect on August 5, 2011, but the concerns of the food business operators about the new licensing system have not yet been addressed.

An unwieldy set of documents and untamed inspector-raj are just some of the concerns hounding the FBOs as the time for migrating to or obtaining the new licences is less and areas needing clarifications are aplenty.

Nevertheless, bodies like the Indian Association of Hotels and Restaurants (AHAR) seem to have managed to successfully put their point across to the authorities.

During a candid chat via e-mail, Vasant Karkal of AHAR enumerated the challenges faced by hoteliers while migrating to the provision of the new Act and a host of other topics.

“First, the number of documents hoteliers have to submit to the licensing authorities while migrating from the old Maharashtra Prevention of Food Adulteration (MPFA) to the new FSSA licenses are nearly 18. That includes the water test certificate despite the fact that the municipal corporation supplies the water,” said Karkal.

Every hotelier has to give an undertaking in writing that he will abide by the new law (which is rather stringent), in spite of not having sufficient time to understand it, according to Karkal.

Further, a hotelier has to obtain a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the municipal corporation of the city in the event of loss of the MPFA, however, the BMC is not issuing any such certificate. "If the MPFA licence is lost, an undertaking has to be written on a sheet of stamp paper indicating the same," he explained.

“The complicated procedure does not end here. In fact, it is worse as the FDA officers are not accepting change of name of an establishment, though the same has been accepted by bodies like the BMC under other regulations like the Shops and Establishment Act, also the additional health licence being sought under the new FSSA and not to mention pay the annual fee of Rs 2,000,” he added.

Hence, "The Association has requested the FDA authorities to simplify the documents and convert the existing MPFA licence to the FSSAI licence by accepting the available documents, which they have acceded only for AHAR members," said Karkal.

However, the hoteliers are wary about the implementation of the new FSSAI, and with good reason. "We are worried because of the misuse of the power by the FDA officials like charging heavy penalty, charging without knowing the ground realities of the hoteliers and hotel premises of Mumbai, complaints and extortion by the NGOs and anti-social elements,” Karkal said.

“Requirements like plan copies, water test certificates of municipal water, changes in the names on the licences without valid reason, etc. will not be accepted,” he added. Although he did not comment on how the authorities reacted to the suggestions the body put forth, he spoke briefly about the suggestions.

“We had requested the authorities to be lenient in the beginning, as it would take us a while to fully understand the Act,” he said, adding that the body had suggested a couple of things. “First, we asked them to consider the option of a dual authority or dual licence, and second, we asked them not charge hotels heavy fines, as this would encourage social workers and the likes, who could resort to blackmail.”