kolkata: The online-based real-time trade license issuing mechanism rolled out by the state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department has received an overwhelming response with over 1.57 lakh trade licenses being issued in a little over six months beginning from January this year. The total revenue earned has been over Rs 16 crore.
From the beginning of this financial year till July 10, the total number of online trade license certificates issued by the urban local bodies has been over 1.14 lakh. In this month itself, 4370 trade licenses have been issued.
The online mechanism was introduced in 125 civic bodies across the state from October 1, which has picked up pace gradually. Trade licenses need to be renewed every year but since the introduction of e-system the provisions for renewal up to 15 years have been made available.
The receipt of applications for e-building plan (grihanaksha) has also been to the satisfaction of the department with 4816 building plans sanctioned by the department from January this year. In the current financial year, 4521 such plans have been approved.
The online building plan system was rolled out for 60 municipalities on August 16, 2021 while for another 63 civic bodies, it started from November 16.
"The time for building plan sanction, if all relevant documents are submitted, is presently 20 to 25 days time. In physical mode, it took almost six months. The target is to bring it down the time taken to 15 days," an official in the Municipal Affairs department said.
In case of e-mutation that was rolled out effectively from November 2021, the department has cleared 11298 cases from January till July 10. About 9609 e -mutations have been done in the current financial year.
According to a senior official of the department, introduction of the online services is a major intervention towards Ease of Doing Business (EODB). "There was no uniformity among the ULBs (except Kolkata Municipal Corporation and Howrah Municipal Corporation) in these matters and each of them had their own way. Often, there were complaints of inordinate delay in building plan sanction or granting of trade licenses. With the online system in place, we are able to monitor things and can seek explanations from municipalities for delay,"he added.
The state government rolled out a toll free helpline number 18003458251, a dedicated help desk at Nagarayan, and an email id helpdesk.sws.udma@wb.gov.in for answering queries related to these services.