TN Minister defends rural trade licence fees amid backlash; says AIADMK enforced similar system
CHENNAI: After criticism from several political parties against the licence fees introduced for businesses in rural areas, the AIADMK in particular, Rural Development Minister I Periyasamy on Wednesday clarified that such a provision existed even under the AIADMK rule, albeit under the name ‘dangerous and offensive trade licence’.
However, amid strong criticisms from parties including PMK, CPM, and TMC (M), the minister also announced the constitution of a new advisory committee, as per CM’s orders, based on requests from trade associations on Wednesday. The committee will submit their recommendations on simplifying the licence process.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, during his ongoing tour of the southern districts, accused the ruling DMK of imposing “hefty fees” for licences for running even small businesses like tea shops and laundry shops in villages and alleged that the fee ranged from Rs 500 to Rs 50,000.
Periyasamy clarified that provisions to obtain licence fees for shops existed under Section 159 of the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act, 1994, and that the licence fees were collected even during the AIADMK’s time.
He attached a 2018 district gazette notification from Coimbatore, listing the licence fee for various categories of trades. He said, in the absence of proper rules, each village panchayat was collecting exorbitant licence fees based on their own discretion.
The state government released a set of rules in July to address this. The rules mainly dealt with introducing an online licencing process and ensuring uniformity in the fee collection. Fees need to be revised only once in three years as per new rules unlike the earlier need for annual revision, the minister said. He said the name of ‘dangerous and offensive trade licence’ was changed as per recommendations of the Sixth State Finance Commission.