SUPERMARKETS, meat wholesalers and retailers, meat processing plants, and ice-cream manufacturers who use cold storage are some of the businesses likely to be affected if the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) decides to enforce cold storage regulations.

The cold storage regulations in the Corporate Area, which are not currently being enforced, are being studied by the KSAMC’s Finance Committee. The regulations have the potential to increase the corporation’s own source revenue.

The operation of cold stores within Kingston and St Andrew are governed by the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) Act, sections 173-182 (appendix 1) regulations, and the KSAC (Cold Stores Rules) 1965 appendix 2.

Financial Research Officer Lebert Francis, who prepared a report for the Finance Committee, said that the licensing fees, which are paid to the KSAMC to use premises for cold storage, were last increased in 1995. He said, too, that they need to be upgraded.

Francis said that under the current fee structure, premises with a 500-1,000 cubic feet capacity licensed to be used as “cold stores” would pay $120.

The report stated that based on a cost recovery approach, the licensing fee for the 500-1,000 cubic feet capacity cold storage premises should be increased to $4,000. For a cold storage premises with more than 1,000 cubic feet capacity, the report recommended that the current fee of $120 plus $5 for every additional cubic ft be increased to a fee of $4,000 plus $160 for every additional 100 cubic feet.

Francis attributed the outdated cold storage fees to the fact that the regulations were not being currently enforced and had not been enforced for more than a decade.

The non-enforcement of the cold storage regulations had resulted in a “lack of knowledge by industry participants regarding the regulations and the requirements for licensing”, the report said.

“Knowledge regarding operating standards was also lacking,” Francis pointed out.

The Finance Committee was informed that one of the requirements for the issuing of cold storage licences is inspection of the premises by the Public Health Department, at the request of the KSAMC.

Although inspections are not being done at the KSAMC’s request, under the Public Health Act, all food handling establishments, including cold storage, are required to have a health certificate, Francis said.

He said that although fees from cold storage did not have the capacity to be a major contributor to KSAMC’s revenue, it could deliver significantly more revenue than some other areas such as butcher’s licence and numbering fees.