Shop registration to be 10 times costlier after March

MCD has said all those shopkeepers who opened new shops in such areas between 2007 and 2008 will have to register themselves and pay conversion and parking charges too, reports Neelam Pandey.

Traders who recently opened shops on the 2,500-odd road stretches notified as commercial and mixed land use areas in the Capital will have to register themselves before March end this year to avoid paying huge penalties. The MCD has said it will charge 10 times the actual amount of penalty in case of a failure to do the same.

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The civic body has said all those shopkeepers who opened new shops in such areas between 2007 and 2008 will have to register themselves and pay conversion and parking charges too.

However, 24 categories of small shops of 20 square metres such as ATMs, general stores, STD/PCO/fax facilities, shops selling dairy products, beauty parlours, cyber cafes, tailoring and optical shops need not pay the parking charges. All other shops that have come up would be covered.

“There are thousands of shopkeepers who opened new shops between 2007 and 2008 and have not yet registered themselves. They need to do so by March end and pay conversion charges by June end. Otherwise, they would be charged ten times the penalty,” said Vijendra Gupta, chairman of the Standing Committee of the MCD.

According to the MCD, many new shops have opened in areas like South Extension Part I and II, Greater Kailash, Chandni Chowk, Karol Bagh and Trans-Yamuna among others.

In addition to this, the MCD has also decided not to seal those shops in residential areas where more than one shop was constructed on a single plot of 20 square metre. The monitoring committee had earlier said only one shop was allowed to be constructed on a single 20 square metre plot, otherwise they would be sealed. “In many cases, thousands of families after getting separated had divided the single plot between various family members and opened more shops. A large number of people were affected by the sealing of these shops and hence we have decided not to seal them. We had also filed a petition in the Supreme Court and will wait for the orders,” said Subhash Arya, Leader of the MCD House.