THREE FMF Foods Ltd subsidiaries were newly accredited as Authorised Economic Operators (AEO) by the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service (FRCS) during its renewal of Gold Card and AEO membership celebrations in Suva on Wednesday this week.
The three subsidiaries were DHF Pte Ltd, FMF Investment Company Pte Ltd and FMF Snax Pte Ltd, who join Biscuit Company Fiji Pte Ltd, another FMF subsidiary whose AEO membership was renewed.
FMF Food’s chief financial officer and company secretary Swastika Prasad said the recognition was a milestone for the three subsidiaries and the Group after they had signed up only one in 2023, the Biscuit Company, which gained AEO accreditation that year.
FRCS had launched its AEO Programme in 2018 as a way of recognising and rewarding businesses that fulfill their civic duty by paying their taxes on time.
According to FRCS chief executive officer Udit Singh, benefits for AEO-accredited companies include removal of bond and bank guarantees, deferred payment options and waiver of outdoor inspection fees.
Ms Prasad said last year, they were able to get the entire FMF Group AEO-accredited as part of the company’s bid for tax compliance and this year’s achievement was their ‘cherry on the cake’.
“At FMF we set the standards very high and this being part of it to maintain the level that we set it falls part of that, which means that our employees are being groomed in such a way that we have to perform in a very high standard,” Ms Prasad told this newspaper.
She also said there had been positive guidelines put in place by the company.
“When we say ‘a promise of quality’, this is another promise of quality in the standards that we share across the Group.”
FRCS also has a Gold Card Services, launched in 2012 to reward tax and customs-compliant companies with priority services.
FMF Foods is listed on the South Pacific Stock Exchange.
NOTE: This article was first published in the print edition of the Fiji Times dated FEBRUARY 8, 2025.
