With a view towards facilitating Ease of Doing Business, the Food and Safety Standards Authority of India (“FSSAI”) has allowed Food Business Operators (“FBOs”) to self-reactivate applications for new or modified licenses / registrations, which were auto rejected (owing to FBOs not responding to queries of licensing / registration authority within the specified timeline) on the FoSCoS portal, subject to the following conditions:
- FBOs availing this option within a period of 30 days from auto-rejection of application, are required to furnish a valid reason for delay. No fee is payable for exercising self-re-activation.
- In the event FBOs opt to self-reactivate the application between the period of 31st and 60th day of the auto-rejection, a fee of Rs. 50 + GST for registration applications and Rs. 500 + GST for license applications will be imposed along with valid reason for delay;
Requests for reactivation due to non-response to queries raised by the licensing authority will not be entertained through any other means and once FBOs choose to exercise this option, it becomes unavailable to them thereafter.
However, rejections specifically provided in writing and based on the grounds of public health interest under Section 31(4) of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, are not eligible for the above-mentioned self-reactivation option provided by the FSSAI. Appeals against such rejections will continue to lie with the Commissioner of Food Safety, and may be submitted online through the FoSCoS portal.
Background:
Under Clause 2.1.4(2) of the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulation, 2011, an applicant is mandated to furnish details sought by the authority within 30 days of request, else the application for license/registration will stand rejected. This led to a long waiting time for the approval of the authorities, handling requests for reactivation of auto-rejected applications.
FBOs are now allowed to self-reactivate auto rejected applications (due to non-response to queries of licensing / registering authority within specified timeline) on FoSCoS portal.
Source: Food Safety and Standards Authority of India
