Delhi: NDMC ends need for separate health trade licences

For meat shops, eating and lodging houses, and hawkers such as ice cream sellers, their FSSAI registration will be considered as the deemed health trade license.

The New Delhi Municipal Council on Wednesday announced that it will treat the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and GST registrations of establishments in its area as deemed health trade license (HTL) and general trade licenses, removing the need for separate licenses. The decision was made during a council meeting in a bid to improve ease of doing business in the area, said NDMC vice chairperson Kuljeet Chahal.

The decision was made during a council meeting in a bid to improve ease of doing business in the area, said NDMC vice chairperson Kuljeet Chahal. (HT)

For meat shops, eating and lodging houses, and hawkers such as ice cream sellers, their FSSAI registration will be considered as the deemed health trade license, while for other trade establishments such as theatres, auditoriums, gyms, spas, and cinemas, their GST registration will be considered as a deemed HTL.

“While separate health licences shall not be mandatory for establishments holding valid FSSAI or GST registration, NDMC shall continue to carry out inspections to ensure compliance with public health, hygiene and sanitation standards, in the interest of public safety,” said an NDMC officialon condition of anonymity.

“Any court case pending due to non-issuance of a Health Licence or any other licence under the aforesaid sections of the NDMC Act shall be subject to the orders of the Hon’ble High Court on a case-to-case basis and deemed licensing will not apply in such cases,” the official further said.

Chahal said that the reduction in revenue from not issuing separate licenses will be made up for by making the council’s property tax collection more stringent, which is an ongoing process. “Through streamlining and best governance, we will ensure that we collect all the property tax we are owed, thus making up for the revenue loss from not issuing separate licences,” he said.

NDMC officials said they receive around 350 licenses requestsperyear, which adds up to an average annual revenue of over ₹1.13 crore.

The council also passed several other proposals related to civic and administrative matters. Among these was the inclusion of the NDMC’s contractual employees, and their dependents, under the Liberalised Medical Health scheme, providing them with cashless medical facilities. Currently, around 878 contractual employees work for the NDMC, according to officials, and a proposal to charge patients the minimal fee for outpatient department registration and dental procedures at NDMC’s dental care clinic.

A proposal to increase the financial assistance given to regular SC/ST council employees for the marriage of two of their children, and to the family of the SC/ST employees at the time of death of an employee, from ₹50,000 to ₹75,000, under the Hitkari Nidhi Yojna, was also passed. The council also approves the construction of 160 type-3 flats at sector-6, Pushp Vihar in Saket, on 8146.24 sq m of land.

Aside from these, the council also approved the replacement of existing streetlight poles with octagonal poles, across the entire NDMC area, at a cost of ₹15.86 crore, and the construction of a water supply control room on 2257.60 sqm of land at old R.K. Ashram Mmarg. The operation of automatic misting systems on 24 NDMC roads for a year at a cost of ₹4.58 crore was also approved.

“Such decisions are always welcome, as they will lead to business being more convinient. License raj is prominent in India even after 75 years of independence. However, a clarification is definitely needed for grocery and provision stores, on whether they will also be deemed as license hodlers or not, or if they will have to apply separately. Additionally, a standard operating procedure is required, which must be stringently followed, so that this decision is not misused,” said Khan Market Traders Association president Sanjiv Mehra.