BMC to bring traders under licence purview
Riyan Ramanath V | TNN | Updated: Dec 25, 2018, 11:44 IST
A file picture of Market building, one of the main shopping ares of BhubaneswarBHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday started enumeration of traders in the city to bring them under the ambit of trade licence fee, which is an important component of revenue.
The ward officers in all 67 wards are moving around their respective localities to find out whether any trader has not registered his unit to pay the trade licence fee. The physical verification will help BMC to know if any trader has recently set up his business but has not voluntarily obtained a registration. Earlier, BMC in April had conducted a camp to facilitate new traders to come and get registered. But that didn’t lead to desired results.
The BMC sources said for various trades and size of the business, there are different slabs of licence fee. The traders have to collect licence certificate from the BMC to do business within the area coming under its jurisdiction.
So far, nearly 31, 000 traders have registered themselves to pay trade licence fee. But according a rough estimate, there are still 5,000 traders outside the ambit of licence administration. “The ward officers have been asked to identify the traders and ask them to file self-declaration forms to inform which trade they deal in and what is the size of their business. Once their registration is done, the trade licence will be calculated by the licence cell,” said an officer of BMC.
In August, 2017, several special camps had been organized that helped the civic body bring 2,500 more traders under tax purview. The camps had helped the BMC generate about Rs 1.3 crore from traders. In 2017-18 fiscal year, the BMC got 3.94 crore, just Rs 3 lakh more than what it earned in 2016-17 fiscal year. “By door-to-door enumeration, we hope to generate revenue of Rs 6 crore in 2018-19 financial year,” said the officer.
In 2016, the civic body had also taken help of Department for International Development (DFID), which provided technical assistance for urban reforms, to gather information about the traders, who were outside the licence administration.
The ward officers in all 67 wards are moving around their respective localities to find out whether any trader has not registered his unit to pay the trade licence fee. The physical verification will help BMC to know if any trader has recently set up his business but has not voluntarily obtained a registration. Earlier, BMC in April had conducted a camp to facilitate new traders to come and get registered. But that didn’t lead to desired results.
The BMC sources said for various trades and size of the business, there are different slabs of licence fee. The traders have to collect licence certificate from the BMC to do business within the area coming under its jurisdiction.
So far, nearly 31, 000 traders have registered themselves to pay trade licence fee. But according a rough estimate, there are still 5,000 traders outside the ambit of licence administration. “The ward officers have been asked to identify the traders and ask them to file self-declaration forms to inform which trade they deal in and what is the size of their business. Once their registration is done, the trade licence will be calculated by the licence cell,” said an officer of BMC.
In August, 2017, several special camps had been organized that helped the civic body bring 2,500 more traders under tax purview. The camps had helped the BMC generate about Rs 1.3 crore from traders. In 2017-18 fiscal year, the BMC got 3.94 crore, just Rs 3 lakh more than what it earned in 2016-17 fiscal year. “By door-to-door enumeration, we hope to generate revenue of Rs 6 crore in 2018-19 financial year,” said the officer.
In 2016, the civic body had also taken help of Department for International Development (DFID), which provided technical assistance for urban reforms, to gather information about the traders, who were outside the licence administration.
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