FNCCI shows reservations about new food quality bill

Kathmandu, Feb. 18

The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) has expressed its serious reservations over the bill to amend and integrate the laws related to food hygiene and quality which has been tabled in the federal parliament.

“If this law is passed as it is, no food-related industry will be able to operate in the country,” a delegation of FNCCI led by its Vice-President, Anjan Shrestha, said to chairman of CPN-UML, KP Sharma Oli.

The delegation of the business organisation had called on Oli, who is also the leader of the ruling coalition and former prime minister, on Sunday afternoon at his residence in Balkot, Bhaktapur, to express private sector’s reservatoins to various provisions mentioned in the proposed law. The delegation included FNCCI’s Commodity Council’s vice-chair, Arniko Rajbhandari, Export Promotion Committee’s chair, Manish Lal Pradhan, and presidents and office bearers of commodity associations related to food grains and products.

The delegation said that although the FNCCI had submitted a three-column amdnement proposal including the concerns and suggestions from the private sector to the members of the Legislative Committee of the National Assembly, the bill is presented as it is in the parliament.

The FNCCI demanded to include provision to mention ‘Best before date’ in the consumer products that have mentioned ‘Food handler protocols and food safety rules’ as per the international practice. Likewise, innocent food traders should be provided financial compensation if the government bans the sell and distribution of certain products on the basis of misgivings and without any evidence.

While arranging for the return of defective or low-quality batch of food products by publishing a public notice, sale and distribution of other batches produced or processed by the food entrepreneur will also be seriously affected. Therefore, the delegation suggested that the provision of public notification to return the goods should be removed.

“Similarly, when the report of the laboratory is not consistent due to various technical problems, a review should be arranged based on the order issued by the concerned government agency on the basis of the report,” said Shrestha.

If the consumer's health is harmed due to the consumption of contaminated or low-quality food, compensation is paid, so it is unfair to imprison the businessperson and charge excessively high fines. “The provision of imprisonment and excessive fines should be removed, the offenses under the Food Hygiene and Quality Act should be kept under criminal offences, and the provision of imprisoning entrepreneurs, businessmen and traders for the entire duration of the trial should be removed,” the delegation said to Oli.

The FNCCI also suggested that since the Food Hygiene and Quality Act is a special law in relation to food, in order to maintain the uniqueness of this act, it is necessary to provide for prosecution only in accordance with this act in relation to the offenses mentioned in this act, the provision of prosecuting cases in accordance with other laws for the offenses under this act should be removed.

In response, Oli assured the delegation that he would support the amendment of the clauses of the bill that would create a situation where industries are not shut down as he believed that the law should be introduced with the aim to protect the industry and health and safety rights of consumers.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 19 February 2023.