Rajahmundry: Exploring new avenues to earn revenue, the funds starved state government has called for a thorough survey of food business operators ranging from kirana shops which sell food items to star hotels having restaurants, manufacturers of various food items and those involved in repacking of glucose powder, chilly powder and even rice, to register them promptly, collect license fee and assess their volume of production in the state.
In a meeting held in Hyderabad, the state food safety authority reviewed the registration and collection of license fee from the FBOs under the provisions of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and felt the need to carry out a thorough survey as many of them are showing their volume of business highly under-valued and paying meager amount for either registration or for obtaining license.
An FBO having its annual turnover at Rs 12 lakh or below pays its registration fee of Rs 100 and if its annual turnover exceeds Rs 12 lakh, it pays Rs 2,000. Food manufacturers and re-packers of food items pay Rs 3,000 as license fee in case their production is one tonne or below per day and those whose volume of production goes up to two tonnes per day, they pay Rs 5,000. Several star hotels having restaurants fall under this category.
Those involve in food processing, refineries, wholesale trade and distribution pay Rs 7,500 as license fee as their volume of production goes beyond two tonnes per day. Some FBOs involved in procuring huge quantum of Glucose powder from its manufacturer based in Ahmedabad and repack them in small quantity with their own brand and sell them as a petty vendor.
Similarly, with regard to chilly powder and even rice, some FBOs are adopting the same practice and pay a meager amount as license fee.The existing license fee is fixed as per the norms of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and the Act is being implemented effectively from December 2011.
Earlier, there used to be very meager registration or license fee to the FBOs as per the norms of Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 and petty vendors used to pay Rs 20, Kirana shop Rs 50 and food manufacturers Rs 75.
In East Godavari, the food safety authorities registered 2,126 FBOs where they collected registration fee of Rs 100 per unit as its annual turnover is less than Rs 12 lakh.
