Shimla civic body decision on compulsory trade licence for businessmen draws flak

Irked by the move of the Shimla Municipal Corporation (MC) for making trade licence compulsory, businessmen and traders of the town have demanded that the civic body must rollback its decision immediately.

Sanjeev Thakur, president, Shimla Vyapar Mandal, said, “There is no point of issuing trade licence to businessmen and traders in the town. Businessmen have already taken licence from the Food and Civil Supplies Department and also have GST numbers. It will only benefit the MC in generating revenue for itself, while it will be of no use to traders and only burden us.”

“We will be meeting Mayor and the Municipal Commissioner this coming Monday regarding our queries. We will apprise them of our issues and also specify reasons why trade licence should not be made compulsory,” said Thakur.

“The decision was also implemented around eight to 10 years ago which led to an agitation. As a result, the MC had to rollback the decision then too,” he said. Thakur warned of protest against the MC if it failed to rollback the decision.

Recently, the Mayor during a meeting of the Finance, Contract and Planning Committee (FCPC) had said that the civic body would make trade licence for traders and businessmen in the town compulsory for which final decision would be taken during the upcoming monthly meeting of the MC scheduled for October 29. Mayor had stated that an online portal would be launched for traders through which they could apply for the licence. The fee for making the licence would be decided at the upcoming meeting, he said.