Delhi government allows restaurants to open 24x7, abolishes police and health trade licenses to end ‘Permit Raj’

Delhi government on October 7, 2020, announced that the city restaurants will now be allowed to open round the clock and the requirement of tourism licenses will also be removed. The move will provide major relief to the city restaurants amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal government also announced other measures such as initiating a process to abolish the health trade licenses and police licenses given by the local bodies for restaurants in order to end the permit raj in the industry.

Presently, restaurants are allowed to open from 11 am to 11 pm in Delhi. Those who have a license to serve liquor can operate from 11 am to 1 am. Roughly there are around 20,000 registered restaurants in the city out of which 650 are licensed to serve alcohol.

Hon'ble CM Shri @ArvindKejriwal convened a meeting with the delegation of @NRAI_India and officials of various departments for the ease of doing businesses for restaurants in Delhi. The Delhi govt is taking measures for the economic revival of the hospitality industry. pic.twitter.com/MjA3bx6V4z

— CMO Delhi (@CMODelhi) October 7, 2020

Why it is an essential step according to the Delhi government?

The major decisions were taken at a meeting which was chaired by the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. It was also attended by the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI). As per the government, the permission to the restaurants to operate 24x7 subjects to the condition that they will take care of the health and security of the entire staff will help the industry in generating more employment and will set an example of the Delhi model of ease of doing business.

The Chief Minister after the conclusion of the meeting stated that Delhi restaurants are the pride of the city and they provide employment to lakhs of people. He added that the government has directed all the respective departments to remove the unnecessary hassles in the smooth running of the restaurants.

Highlights of the meeting:

• During the meeting, Delhi CM directed that the health trade licenses which have been issued by the municipal corporations to restaurants must be abolished within a time period of 10 days.

• The excise department in the meeting agreed to review the existing policy of a 10% automatic increase in the license fees every year.

• As the decision to end permit raj was taken in the meeting, the Delhi govt is yet to decide on new uniform fire safety norms.

• Decisions were also taken by the government for the economic revival of the hospitality industry.

• It was also decided to implement measures in order to ensure the introduction of licensing reforms in the restaurant industry.

• Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi called for the restaurants to pay their excise by March 31 from the existing deadline which is February 28 in order to make quarterly license fee payments without any interest.

Background:

The request to operate restaurants 24x7 by the owners was made in the light of it being one of the most over-regulated industries that require duplication of licenses and multiple NOCs. During the meeting, the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) also gave a detailed presentation on permit raj that constraints the restaurant industry’s growth in the capital.

The request to abolish the police license was also made as restaurants are part of the retail sector and no other retail business is required to acquire a police license.