KMC hopes to collect about Rs 70 cr license fees in FY ’24

KOLKATA: Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s (KMC) License department is mulling several measures for the financial year 2023-24 towards further simplification of the online process of obtaining and renewing Certificate of Enlistment (CE) for traders while it has set a target of collecting Rs 70 crore approximately as license fees in FY 24.

The civic body seeks to provide traders with an easy and transparent system for obtaining and renewing the Certificate of Enlistment to enable them to carry out business activities in a peaceful and hassle-free manner.

An official confirmed that attempts are underway to simplify further the online process of obtaining and renewing CE for the benefit of the traders. A total number of 52,612 CE have been issued up to November 13, 2022.

Apart from collecting revenue from licence fees, the official said that the objective of the Licence department is to ensure that traders can legitimately do business without having to face any legal hassles. KMC has taken some measures to simplify the obtaining of CE with the issuance of new guidelines under Section 199 of the KMC Act.

Presently, traders need to submit only two documents to obtain the CE. KMC has also relaxed specific rules pertaining to the submission of some statutory documents such as fire licences, clinical certificates, pollution certificates, RBI/SEBI clearance etc. before or at the time of obtaining the CE.

For renewal of CE, traders can now obtain and renew it for multiple years i.e. 15 years by making a one-time payment.

In the case of godown/warehouse etc, traders can now obtain CE for a lifetime on payment of a consolidated fee for 20 years, obviating the need for renewal.

Under the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), KMC has ensured that traders can obtain the CE online on a real-time basis by logging into KMC’s web portal, removing the requirement of physical visits at KMC offices.

More attempts in this regard are underway for further simplification of the process.

The License department intends to collect revenue of Rs. 64 crore approximately in the ongoing financial year (2022-23) while it has set a target of Rs 70 crore approximately for the financial year 2023-24.