The Hindu Business Line : Edible oil importers face clearance woes

Kolkata, Jan. 6 At a time when commodity market participants are going through a tough time characterised by falling demand, volatile prices, contract defaults and generally poor business confidence, the Government departments seem to be adding to their woes rather than ameliorate them.

Take Kolkatta port for instance. Huge consignments of edible oil are lying in the port not cleared for home consumption for several days on lack of laboratory facilities to test the sample and certify its fitness. Under the extant food law, it is mandatory for the importer to obtain a clearance certificate from the Port Health Officer (PHO, under the Union Ministry of Health) who issues it after testing the quality of imported cargo.

According to the All-India Oils and Seeds Foreign Trade Association, about 25,000 tonnes of palm oil has been awaiting clearance; but currently no one is in-charge of the central food laboratory which tests the quality of imported oil and certifies its fitness.

The post of director of Central Food Lab has been lying vacant for one week now. So, the PHO has held up clearance.

While the process of certification usually takes as much as 20 days in Kolkatta (with the importer risking huge losses if market moved adversely), in Mumbai it is done in a matter 4-5 days, with the well-equipped Municipal Laboratory serving the needs of the local PHO and the importers. A representative of the association told Business Line that Kolkata-based importers are really in a quandary with the New Year bringing little cheer. Worse, it is reported that the municipal laboratory in Kolkata was ill-equipped to test samples of imported edible oil. A representation sent to the Chief Minister of West Bengal has evoked no response so far, it is believed.

The association now wants the Central Government to intervene and permit testing of samples at approved private laboratories in order to expedite clearance of imported edible oil. It has also argued for upgrading infrastructure facilities for testing food products at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

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