PETALING JAYA, Aug 5 — The Health Ministry will increase its Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) fees by up to seven times, casting a cloud of uncertainty over exporters.

Malaysia Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Association president Datuk Michael Kang said the new fees, which comes into effect on Aug 15, was not justifiable given the current economic trends.

He said the hike would deter SMEs from renewing the HACCP certification, which addresses food safety, from raw materials to finished products.

"Small businesses can barely cope with the economic slowdown and lower demand for their goods. It will not come as a surprise if they decide not to renew their licence altogether.

"The fee hike is completely unjustifiable and businesses would think twice about expanding their operations and this could even reduce competitiveness,’’ he said.

For new HACCP applications, the fee for large companies was raised from RM4,505 to RM5,400, and from RM3,235 to RM4,000 for SMEs.

The renewal fee was raised from RM600 to RM4,000 for large companies and RM600 to RM3,000 for SMEs. Fees for sales and health certificates were also increased from RM30 to RM100 and RM80 to RM300 respectively.

A surveillance audit, which is currently free, will cost RM1,800.

A large company is defined as those with 150 full-time workers with an annual turnover of RM25 million, while an SME has less than 150 full-time workers with an annual turnover of not more than RM25 million.

Kang said the industry needed all the help they could get as they might face greater uncertainties in the coming months.

"With certain sectors experiencing slow growth and even a drop in revenue of 20 to 30 per cent, we are worried that quarters three and four of the year could get worse if there is no change to the market,” he said.

"The health certification for the shipment is burdensome as every individual freight container needs to be certified in order to ship. It is RM300 now and if I want to export 10 containers, I need to pay RM3,000.

"This could lead to the prices of goods being increased to offset the additional cost on top of the currency and labour issues,’’ he said.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S Subramaniam said the changes would reflect the current administration costs and businesses must be realistic in their demands.

"The last changes we made to the fee was 15 years ago and we have reviewed it thoroughly this time and found the fee was no longer relevant. We have to change the fee to keep up with the current economic value.

"It is unfair for businesses to think that the ministry should bear all the costs and not increase our prices,’’ he said.

According to Dr Subramaniam, many other services under the purview of the Food Safety and Quality Division were increased as well to keep up with the times.