State govt decides to cut down fire licence fees by 92%

Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government on Monday decided to reduce the 'fire licence fees' by 92 percent. The move comes in the wake of a number of requests from industry houses and small and medium scale businessman who had pointed out that the steep rise of the mandatory one-time fee to procure fire licence is posing a major problem for them.

"There are four categories of buildings and

in every category it has been decided that the

fire licence fee should be reduced by 92 percent compared to 2017. However, compared to 2005, there has been a formidable increase of 45 percent," said state Finance and Industry minister Amit Mitra, after the Cabinet meeting at Nabanna.

According to Mitra, the state government has had a detailed meeting with the state Fire and Emergency department and finally it was decided to cut down the fees.

"The Fire department is not a revenue earning department. This exorbitant fee was imposed to make the people aware of the situation, but our government doesn't have any intention to tax the people. So we have made the fee reasonable and within the limits of the common people," Mitra asserted.