Only 10% public eateries have Halal cert

Harny Abu Khair
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

ONLY 10 per cent out of 1,212 public eateries in Brunei Darussalam have been awarded Halal certificates or labels.

This was revealed by the Minister of Home Affairs, Yang Berhormat Pehin Udana Khatib Dato Paduka Seri Setia Ustaz Hj Badaruddin Pengarah Dato Paduka Hj Othman at yesterday's sitting of LegCo.

In providing members of the council with an overview of the number of licensed eateries and those awarded with Halal certificates in all four districts, the minister said that the percentage represented 130 public eateries across the country with the highest number being in Bandar Seri Begawan with 69 out of 494 licensed restaurants in Bandar Seri Begawan halal certified.

Out of 376 public eateries in the Brunei-Muara District, only 36 or 9.6 per cent have Halal certificates while only seven out of 83 in Tutong were awarded and five out of 27 in Temburong.

For the Belait District, none of the 29 licensed public eateries have been awarded the Halal certificate.

For the Belait Municipality, 11 out of 171 public eateries were awarded Halal certificates while in Tutong Municipality, only two out of 32 public eateries have obtained the certificates.

The minister explained that according to the Halal Food Control Unit, Syariah Welfare Department under the Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA), only 410 applications for the Halal certificates had been submitted.

"The number includes non-public eateries and so far only 150 certificates have been issued."

"This means the majority of public eatery proprietors have yet to submit their applications for the Halal certificate," he said.

"I would like to advise public eatery operators to immediately submit their applications and get their Halal certificates before the new regulation is enforced next year."

"This is where every eatery operator must get their Halal certificates before they can renew the miscellaneous licence for their restaurants," he said.

Follow-up by the relevant departments would only be carried out in genuine cases, where there is delay in issuing miscellaneous licences to operators who have already applied for the Halal certificates, he added.

"However those who refused to apply for Halal certificate, then they are blatantly ignoring the new regulation and this means they are operating without licences and will have to face the risks (of having their eateries closed)," he said.

Dipetik dari - The Brunei Times