Trade licences to have 5-yr validity from April

BENGALURU: Traders can heave a sigh of relief as their annual visits to civic agencies to renew trade licences are set to end from next year.
Beginning April 1, 2019, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will issue trade licences with a five-year validity. The entire process will be online, but traders will have to bear the burden of shelling out the licence fee for five years at one go.

To obtain fresh licences, traders have to mandatorily produce the electricity bill from Bescom along with the agreement with the property owner. If the establishments are located on 40-foot-wide roads and in areas tagged semi-commercial, traders will have to submit no-objection letters from neighbours.

The changes come in the wake of chief secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar issuing guidelines to BBMP officials during a recent inter-departmental review meeting to streamline the trade licensing procedure.

Confirming the changes, BBMP special commissioner D Randeep told TOI , "We have cut down the number of documents to be produced to obtain trade licences. A circular has been issued to ensure the online procedure is adopted. The third measure is to renew the licence once in five years."

However, things may not remain as rosy as they seem for traders. The medical officer (health), the issuing authority at the zonal level, will check if the establishment has violated the zoning regulations. "If there's a violation in the building where the trade has to be undertaken, the authority will not issue a licence," Randeep asserted.

"We have directed officials to not interact with applicants directly. As we are promoting the online procedure, officials will interact, if required, with applicants only after the spot inspection. The said application will be processed under the Sakala timeframe," he said.

Randeep said as the new licence renewal policy will be implemented from April.