The new year is beginning on a high note for restaurants and bars in five-star and four-star hotels in the city as these establishments can now stay open round-the-clock. Eateries in three-star hotels will be allowed to operate till 2 a.m. while the rest can remain open till 1 a.m. The move comes as part of an ease in licensing norms initiated by L-G V.K. Saxena.
In November, the L-G had set up a committee to ease and facilitate licence requirements for restaurants and eateries, directing it to examine the existing regulations and suggest methods to expedite the licensing processes.
Sources said the same will now be sent to the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to bring about necessary changes in the new application undertaking and thereafter uploading the same on the MHA Licensing Portal. “This is expected to be done in the next three weeks, and come January 26, entrepreneurs in the city will be able to avail of this business-friendly and liberalised licensing regime,” one of the sources said.
According to the new norms, which are largely aimed at giving a boost to the city’s night-time economy, restaurants and bars in five-star and four-star hotels, including those within airport, railway station and ISBT premises, will be permitted to operate on a 24X7 basis.
Ease of business
Simultaneously, the cap on only one restaurant in these hotels getting a liquor licence has also been lifted. Those familiar with the development said it will enable the establishments to obtain separate liquor licences for more than one restaurant on their premises, upon paying the licence fee. The number of documents required to obtain licences has been reduced — it won’t require applicants to upload 28 documents during the application process.
They added that the process to filethe Common Application has been made user-friendly by removing the required 140 fields. This 21-page form has been reduced to just nine pages. Instead of multiple separate affidavits, a single common undertaking has been introduced.
The sources added that applicants will be able to get their licence “within 49 days, instead of the earlier system in which the average time frame was three years”. They added that the pendency of new applications in 2022 for eateries stands at over 2,389. Over 2,100 applications from 2021 also remain pending. Similarly, 359 applications for lodging houses are pending for 2022, the sources said.
These changes are expected to give a much-needed boost to the city’s night-time economy, and ensure more employment. “It will also ensure that entrepreneurs in Delhi, who are losing business to their counterparts in NCRdue to the archaic and restrictive licensing regime in the Capital, retain and augment their clientele and benefit financially,” one of the sources added.
