CHENNAI Corporation to lose Rs. 30 lakh over cracker shop licences

Source:http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/cracker-trade-corporation-to-lose-revenue/220008.html

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on November 2, 2010:

CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation is expected to lose a revenue of Rs 30 lakh or more as it continues to remain clueless about its role in issuing temporary trade licences to set up cracker shops across the city this Deepavali season.

According to rules prescribed to obtain such a licence, traders who plan to set up cracker shops first need to get a no-objection certificate (NOC)  for fire safety from the fire and rescue services department, after paying a facilitation fee of Rs 800 per application.

However, R Nataraj, director, fire and rescue services, denied having collected any facilitation fee for granting an NOC and said the service was free.

Traders should then approach the city police for a law and order NOC by paying Rs 150 as processing fee.

Once the applicants get both the NOCs, they need to approach the zonal officers of the Chennai Corporation with several documents, including the latest receipt of property tax payment, to obtain the mandatory temporary trade licence to set up the shop.

The civic body will then issue a licence under the Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act, 1919.

The civic officials can charge Rs 1,000 as fee for shops selling less than 50 kg of crackers and Rs 2,000 above it. However, most traders never approach the Corporation as they feel it’s a “tedious process” at its zonal offices.

According to the Corporation’s assistant revenue officers in its 10 zones, they haven’t received a single application seeking a temporary trade licence. However, the fire and rescue services department has cleared about 1,100 applications, while the Chennai Police Commissionerate has cleared about 600 applications so far.

The final number of applications is likely to hover around 1,800 to 2,000.

Speaking to Express, Corporation Commissioner D Karthikeyan said, “Whoever approaches the civic body for such a licence, we will issue it.”

He also warned that field officials would visit those cracker shops that have failed to pay the licence fee and collect it.