NEW DELHI: The license and registration fees for running eateries, restaurants and banquet halls in the city is going to see a major hike with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) approving new rates for issuing health trade licenses and registration fee for such establishments. The move has come in a bid for having uniform rates across the city, as the rates for such establishments in erstwhile North and East corporation areas were too low, said officials.
According to officials in the civic body’s public health department, the new rates are applicable from July 1, 2022 itself. The rates have been revised for 94 categories of businesses that require health trade licenses to function including dhabas, eateries, coffee-houses, grocery stores, banquet halls, hotels, recreational facilities and milk booths, among others. As per the new rates, smaller establishments will have to shell out more, as the license fee (annual) has been hiked across all categories.
For instance, so far the annual license fee for banquet halls ranged between Rs 5,000 and Rs 25,000, under the erstwhile corporations. Under the new policy, license fees for banquet halls with a capacity of up to 250 seats have been fixed at Rs 15,000 while registration charges (one-time) have been fixed at Rs 10,000. For banquet halls having more than 250 seats, the license fee is Rs 25,000 while registration charges have been fixed at Rs 20,000.
Similarly, eateries and restaurants with a capacity of up to 20 seats will have to pay a registration fee of Rs 10,000 and an annual license fee of Rs 10,000. “The rates have been revised in order to bring uniformity across all parts of the city as well as for rationalisation of the amount charged, which was too low in the areas under the erstwhile North Corporation. For North Delhi, the revision of rates was long -pending. Now that the civic body is re-unified, it is easier to bring about these reforms,” said a senior official, who didn’t wish to be named.
For establishments under North, the hike in fees is in the range of 50 per cent-100 per cent while for East it is around 25 per cent. For areas under South, the rates almost remain the same and only some hike in registration fee has been made, the official said.
Also, the official added, it will bring more transparency in the system, as the model for charging license and registration fee will be unit-based (depending on the nature and size of an establishment) rather than the so far existing area-based. “Besides, this will help boost revenue generation for the civic body. So far, the rates for areas under North were so low that the collection of fees from health trade units was only around Rs 60 lakh a year. The fee collection will now go up to Rs 9 crore per annum for this part of the city.
For areas under East Delhi, the annual collection so far was around Rs 3 crore, which will now go up to Rs 4-5 crore. For South, the collection was around Rs 9 crore, which will now go up to Rs 10 crore,” the official said. As per the revised rates, a processing fee of Rs 1,000 will be charged per application. At the same time, the de-sealing charge has been fixed at three times the annual license fee. “Also, no late fee will be charged in cases of renewal till one month from date of expiry of license validity. Thereafter, a penalty equivalent to 10 per cent of the annual fee will be charged per month,” said another official.
The revision in rates has not gone down well with business owners. Sanjeev Khandelwal, president, Hotels and Restaurant Owners Association said that the decision of increasing fees is taken without consulting the stakeholders.
Revision move doesn’t sit well with owners
The revision in rates has not gone down well with business owners. Sanjeev Khandelwal, president, Hotels and Restaurant Owners Association said that the decision of hiking fees is taken without consulting stakeholders. “The sudden hike of more than 50% in fee without any intimation is going to affect livelihoods of 15 lakh traders. There was no discussion and the rates have been imposed arbitrarily,” he said
