Relevant committee supports fines for import of unenriched flour

 Relevant committee of the Parliament supported fines for the import of unenriched flour at today's meeting. Amendments to the Code of Administrative Responsibility initiated by deputies of the Parliament were considered in the first reading.

According to the initiators of the bill, iron deficiency leads to setback in intellectual and physical development of children, impairment of reproductive function in women, a high maternal mortality, a decrease in the body’s resistance to infections.

As a result of the negative effects of iron deficiency in foodstuffs, almost a thousand newborns are exposed to the risk of mortality at birth every year. Half of children at the age of 6–23 months are at risk of brain development disorder, there is a decrease in the labor productivity in adults.

Ekmat Baybakpaev

According to UNICEF, partial annual economic losses from anemia comprise 2.1 billion soms per year.

«The law of the Kyrgyz Republic «On the enrichment of baking flour» was adopted in 2009. However, its provisions are not implemented. According to the National Statistical Committee, the volume of production of enriched flour is decreasing despite the growth in the production and import of wheat. The imported flour is not enriched with additives," the initiators note.

The draft law proposes to impose an administrative fine on legal entities, citizens and individual entrepreneurs of 500 calculated indicators (50,000 soms) with confiscation of unenriched flour.