Draft Report of the High Level Group on Services Sector

7.2.6 Multiple License Requirements
The retail trade industry has represented that it has to secure a total of 45 licenses, clearances, registration certificates or notification requirements for each outlet and that its operational efficiency would increase considerably if a it had the facility of single window clearance. Six of these are related to infrastructure viz., modification of existing structure in eased premises, lifts & escalators, parking permission from traffic police, power connection, Diesel Generating Set approval beyond the prescribed capacity, license for water usage/connection and NOC for Fire License. Seven are operational requirements such as trade license, stamping and verification (calibration) of any weight or measure used in the transactions, forecourt license, illumination signboard license, approval of State Pollution Board for trade sewerage, medical certificate for persons handling food items and police permission for plying of vehicles for the movement of vehicles for the movement of supplies during the day. Seven of these requirements are related to labour laws, namely, Shops & Establishments Act, license to operate shops for 365 days, the Factories Act, Employees Provident Fund Act, Employees State Insurance Act, the Contract Labour Act (registration certificate as principal employer and licenses for individual contractors), and the Payment of Gratuity Act (notification of opening an establishment and submission of nomination forms). There is a requirement for endorsement of selling location in VAT and CST registration. The most onerous are the 18 requirements, which are product related. These include APMC License for fruits and vegetables and food grains, eating house license, license for trade in milk and milk products, license for storage and sale of meat products and eggs, Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) license for different categories of products including baby food, license for storage and sale of freshly prepared foods & sweetmeat, FDA license for storage and retail under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, appointment of pharmacists for each store, Household Pesticides and Insecticides License, registration of manufacturers, packers and importers under the Standards of Weights and Measures (Packaged Commodities) Rules, licenses for specified commodities under the Essential Commodities Act, license for playing music in the store under the Copyright Act, liquor license, book store license, bakery product manufacturers license, opticians license and perfumery license.
The High Level Group considered the suggestion for single window clearance of retail outlets in depth. It noted that some of the clearances such as the one by the State Pollution Board had to be given by statutory bodies. Further it was necessary to take into account the local conditions such as in the case of clearance for parking or permission for transporting supplies within urban areas for retail outlets during the day. The certificates and licenses had to be given by authorities belonging to various organs of the State Government and of the Municipal bodies, and if a single authority were to be empowered to issue the licenses or clearances through a single window, it would in any case need to coordinate with these organs before granting clearances against various requirements. Such a process could conceivably take a longer time than obtaining the clearances/licenses separately. The High Level did not consider single window licensing retail outlets practicable. However, the Group was of the view that authorities should grant clearance/license/certificate to all the outlets of a retail chain that lie within their jurisdiction in one transaction, instead of requiring separate processing for each outlet.