Many restaurants, hotels, roadside eateries, stores selling food, meat stalls and groceries have not been registered under Food Safety and Standard Act (FSS), 2006 with Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).
Centre has extended deadline until February 4, 2014 for hotels and small eateries to take licence. In all, there are 12,000 hotels and 20,000 small eateries in Hyderabad, of which only 5,000 have taken licences and registered with GHMC.
According to FSS Act, the licence is mandatory for any food-related business. Eateries should obtain the licence based on their turn-over. Businesses with turnover more than Rs.12 lakh have to pay Rs. 2,000 for licence and for those whose turnover is less than 12 lakh have to pay Rs.100 to register with GHMC.
If a business owner fails to take licence under the Act, the designated officers are authorised to prosecute him/her. The court is likely to impose a fine of Rs.5 lakh for businesses with turnover more than 12 lakh while for establishments having less than this, the fine could be up to Rs.2 lakh.
Rules under FSS Act were revised in August 2011. In 2012, 3,575 eateries had taken licences and 4,655 got registered. In 2013, only 2,495 eateries obtained licences and 1,484 registered with the proper authorities within GHMC limits. The poor response was mainly due to lack of awareness. GHMC has already conducted meetings with hotel associations and bakeries’ associations to bring awareness. Some more awareness programmes are being planned for roadside eateries.
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