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Only six cos get licence for packaged drinking water

Ambarish Mukherjee

NEW DELHI, Dec. 24

ONLY six companies have so far received licences for `packaged drinking water' and none in the `natural mineral water' category. This follows the Government order for mandatory conformation to Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) specifications for bottled d rinking water which come into effect from March next year.

The six companies are the Hyderabad-based Uma Beverages for its `Fresh' brand, the Calcutta-based West Bengal Chemicals for its brand `Life Line', the Guntoor-based Sapphire Spring for `Sapphire', the Delhi-based Blue Lite Aqua Products for `Blue Lite', the Jabalpur-based Khodiar Beverages for `Khodiar' and the Visakhapatnam-based Life Line Aqua.

According to an official of the BIS, there are another 15-16 licences in the pipeline for packaged drinking water and only five/six in the mineral water category.

According to rough estimates, there are, at present, more than a 100 companies operating in this industry. According to data available with the BIS headquarters, till November, around 30-35 companies had applied for licences. Under normal circumstances, if the applicant met all requirements, it took around two months from the date of the application to get the licence.

Going by that, a majority are yet to apply, which includes some big players, and time is running out fast. But the official declined to name the big players who have not yet applied.

There are apprehensions, however, within the Government, that the whole issue might land up in the court. As ``some big players'' in the industry will not be able to command a premium price for their brands of drinking water, they might move the court fo r a stay order to delay the implementation.

Explaining the rationale behind his apprehension that the whole issue might land up in court, the official explained, ``Now, for natural mineral water, the producer has to conform to 48 specifications and for packaged drinking water, 43 specifications.

``And after meeting all these norms, they will not be permitted to make any claims regarding any medicinal or other beneficial effect related to the health of the consumer. This will change the structure of the industry where nobody will be able to estab lish any claims for a premium. Now you have a litre of water costing between Rs 10 and Rs 100. This will stop, as people will not buy the same thing for different prices. There are many who will not like it.''