Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom says the
issuance of halal certificates to the Department of Islamic Development
Malaysia (Jakim) and the State Islamic Religious Department. ? Picture by Saw
Siow Feng
KUALA LUMPUR, March 19 ― The enforcement of
the Trade Descriptions Act 2011 has managed to curb the issuance of fake halal
certificates to zero, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department
Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom said the Act which replaced the Trade
Descriptions Act 1972 restricted authority in the issuance of halal
certificates to the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) and the
State Islamic Religious Department.
"Previously through the Trade Descriptions
Act 1972, anyone could issue the certificate. Any private organisation and
company could also issue certificates when they registered halal-related
companies,” he said in response to an additional question from Siti Zailah Mohd
Yusoff (PAS-Rantau Panjang).
He also said the government had no
intention of setting up a special entity to take over the duties of Jakim and
the Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC) in overseeing the issuance of
halal certificates.
Both agencies he said, were already managing
well, with Jakim handling the issuance of halal certificates and HDC focusing
on management, monitoring and coordination of industry players.
Jamil Khir said the two agencies also
served as a joint secretariat in the Malaysian Halal Council together with the
Department of Standards Malaysia (DSM).
He said DSM was established to coordinate
the agencies involved either at the federal or state level to ensure that
Malaysia continued to lead in global halal and become a world reference centre.
“At the same time, the development of the
national halal industry can be synchronised to become more strategic, effective
and comprehensive through development of a number of important components to
produce a holistic halal ecosystem,” he said.
He was responding to a question from Datuk
Norah Abd Rahman (BN-Tanjong Manis) who wanted to know whether Jakim and HDC
could be consolidated so that matters related to halal certificate application
would be controlled by just one entity to avoid confusing foreign investors. ―
Bernama
Link->http://m.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/issuance-of-halal-certificates-only-restricted-to-jakim-state-islamic-relig