Ease of Doing Business: State issues over 7K trade licenses in a month

Kolkata: The Bengal government has set a new record by issuing more than 7,000 trade licenses since October 1 when the online based "real-time trade license issuing mechanism" was introduced in 125 civic bodies across the state.

This comes after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee gave a call to make the state number one in industry and commerce.

As per the direction of the Chief Minister, the state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department took the initiative and the mechanism for "real-time mode" issuing of certificate of enlistment for trades were introduced in all the urban local bodies (ULBs) as a part of Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) initiatives.

The mechanism ensures automatic online issuance of trade license soon after the required documents are uploaded followed by the online payment of required payment (application fees, annual municipal charges and if there is any due arrears or fees). It would be provided without any physical inspection of business premises. The ULBs are, however, authorised to undertake inspection at the address where an entrepreneur or trader is running his or her business after six months of the issuance or renewal of trade license and can also cancel the license immediately in case any fraud or mala fide data entry or uploading of fake documents is detected.

The licenses (both new and renewed ones) are system generated that helps avoid physical contact and signature.

Prospective investors are now getting their trade licenses in just a single click even on weekends and holidays with the introduction of the real-time mode trade license issuance system. As a result, more than 7,000 trade licenses were issued in the past one month from October 1 to 31.

According to a senior officer of the state secretariat, the initiative is helping attract more investment in the state. New units of trade and commerce are getting set up resulting in generation of employment opportunities.

It needs to be mentioned that the online mechanism to apply for a trade license was in place for the past few years. But entrepreneurs used to get trade licenses manually. It was just a month ago the real-time mode license issuance system was introduced.

The state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs department has also introduced a single window system for entrepreneurs in Durgapur and Asansol. Earlier, development authorities used to give land and approve site plans for industry. Then the entrepreneur had to go to the ULB for subsequent modalities. "Now, the power that earlier rested with concerned ULBs has been given to the development authorities. As a result, entrepreneurs get all the modalities completed through a single window to set up any industry," the officer said.