The Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and remove “irritants” in the Food Safety and Standards Act “which are not in harmony with his resolve to make India a manufacturing hub”.
In a press release issued here on Tuesday, chamber president N. Jegatheesan said the Act contained several inconsistent and impractical provisions which would penalise those in food sector business. “We welcome the intention of the Act but it should be enforced only after making necessary changes to make it business-friendly. Food processing sector offers vast manufacturing and employment scope. However, the provisions in that Act are not in tune with the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ initiative,” he noted.
He said the Act made it compulsory for food business operators with an annual turnover of up to Rs 12 lakh to get registered and for those who exceeded that turnover to obtain licence by paying a fee of Rs 2,000 every year.
“This licensing mandate will severely impede the growth of food-related business and pave way for re-advent of licence raj. We appeal to the Centre to withdraw the licensing requirement and make only registration mandatory,” he said.
An announcement should be made by the Centre before the expiry of the current licences on February 4. The Centre had so far not consulted the representatives of the food sector on the amendments to be made to the Act, he added.
No comments:
Post a Comment