After freeing eateries from the police permissions regime, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday took another major step towards ease of doing business and decided to sharply reduce permissions required for obtaining licences for 38 businesses in its jurisdiction. The move will bring relief to a large section of small and medium businesses and traders.
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The list includes new restaurants and hotels, lodging houses, permit rooms, beer bars, sweet shops, shops selling soft drinks and food items, flour mills, fruit juice centres, fruit marts, laundry shops, hair salons, medical stores, paan shops, bakeries, stables, sugarcane juice centres, papad-making units, soda-water manufacturing units, tea shops and edible oil manufacturing units. Licences for these businesses are issued under section 394 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888.
“These businesses require permissions from the BMC’s public health department. Now, the civic body has decided to reduce the number of general, special conditions and no-objection certificates (NOC) required for such businesses from 72 to 51,” a senior civic official said.
Earlier, anyone wanting to set up any of these business required an elaborate set of permissions from the Building and Factory department and an NOC from the BMC fire department, which had to be submitted to the Public Health Department before the establishments could be opened to business. Now, such owners will only need an NOC from the fire brigade.
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The city’s hotel associations like the Indian Hotel & Restaurant Association (AHAR), National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) and the Hotel and Restaurant Association (Western India) (HRAWI) had made a representation to Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta two months ago, seeking simplification of permissions from the Building and Factory department. The same has been approved by the civic chief.
The licensing process was a five-level one, which required permissions to the proposal of a new business initiative from the ward office level to the executive health officer level.
“Now, we have reduced it to three levels, empowering primarily the ward office. After the medical health officer submits such proposals for licensing, the ward officer can give approval. The conditions imposed by the health department and the Chief Fire Officer, however, will be applicable,” the officer said.
The general conditions for licences have been reduced from 37 to 31 and special conditions have been reduced from 35 to 20, making it easier for entrepreneurs to set up such businesses.
The officer added, “The application forms have been further simplified, and will be uploaded on the BMC website. It is expected that the licensing process will be completed within one month. If an application is rejected, the applicant will be informed within a month.”
Speaking to The Hindu, Riyaaz Amlani, president, NRAI, said, “Though I have not received any official circular from the BMC, I welcome this decision. It shows the government is moving in the right direction and is committed to simplifying ease of doing business.”
He added that hotel associations had submitted a 30-point charter of demands to Mr Mehta urging BMC to simplify the licensing and permissions process.
Mr Amlani said, “We had told Mr Mehta that there is a central body like the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) governing eating houses now, so obtaining eating house licences from city authorities is duplication of work. We had also asked for three-year renewals instead of annual ones, and an online process. It appears Mr Mehta has done what was immediately possible.”
On December 22, 2015 the state government had cancelled the Eating House registration certificate, swimming pool licence, Place of Public Entertainment Licence A & B, and Performance License removing eating houses and hotels from the purview of the police.
We have reduced the process to 3 levels, empowering primarily the ward office
A senior civic official