To identify traders who do business within the area of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) without paying the required trade licence fee, the BMC on Saturday signed an agreement with a private agency for a survey of the defaulters.
BMC Deputy Commissioner Srimanta Mishra signed the agreement with Sparrow Software Pvt Ltd’s Subrat Kumar Dey. The agency would conduct the survey to find out the traders who are running businesses without obtaining trade licence. The survey would take about a month’s time.
The agency would collect ward-wise information with location details and related information for an easy identification. Based on its report, the BMC would take further action to regularise the process to ensure that the traders pay the licence fee.
An official said that at present, more than 50,000 business units are functioning within the BMC limits. However, nearly 13,000 of them have obtained trade licence which is far lower than actual number of the units. This is causing revenue loss to the civic body.
Notably, the trade licence can be obtained online.
The BMC under the provision of Section 554 and Section 617 of Orissa Municipal Corporation Act 2003 issues licences and permissions to carry out businesses. The licences and permissions are issued after payment of the due licence fee as per the BMC’s Dangerous and Offensive Trade Regulation 2006.