Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has approved new licensing norms that will allow 5-star and 4-star hotels to operate more than one restaurant round-the-clock, even as eateries at all 3-star hotels will be allowed to operate till 2am and those in other categories will be able to operate till 1am, according to officials.
In November last year, the Delhi LG set up a high-powered committee to ease license requirements for restaurants and eateries, and directed it to examine the existing regulations and suggest ways of expediting the licensing processes. After the submission of the report by the committee, several rounds of meetings formalized the liberalized regulations, an official said, asking not to be named.
The new trade licensing policy will mandate faster application processing, fewer documents to be submitted by applicants and relaxations in operation timings. Saxena has approved the reforms and they will come into effect after January 26, 2023, the official added.
“All restaurants and eating places in 5-star and 4-star hotels, the ones within airports, railway stations and interstate bus terminus premises will be permitted to operate on a 24-hour basis with additional fee. In 5-star and 4-star hotels, the ceiling of only one restaurant getting bar license has been lifted. 5-star and 4-star hotels will now be able to obtain separate liquor licenses for more than one restaurant and bar serving liquor within the hotel premises,” another official familiar with the development said, asking not to be named.
The reforms will now be sent to the National Informatics Center (NIC) to bring about necessary changes in the new application undertaking and will be uploaded on the home ministry licensing portal.
“It took several rounds of meetings headed by the LG with chief secretary, police commissioner, home secretary and MCD commissioner along with other stakeholder departments to concretise the liberalized regulations and they will now be sent to NIC to make necessary changes in the new application process in the licensing portal,” the second official from the LG office said.
Under the new licensing regime, the number of documents required for getting licenses has been reduced, with 28 types of documents no longer required for the applications. “Documents such as agency-specific affidavit, liquor license proof, VAT registration, weight and measures licence, DPCC capital investment affidavit, water bill, electricity bill, registration under Shops and Establishment Act, affidavit regarding smoking area, location map, proof of allotment of plot, ESI establishment registration proof, EPF registration proof, and music license have been removed from the list of required documents,” the first official said.
The new policy also mandates that an applicant should get their license within a maximum of 49 days instead of the earlier time frame, which did not have a cut-off. “As many as 2,389 new applications for eating houses from 2022 and 2,121 applications from 2021 are pending right now. Similarly, 359 applications for lodging houses are pending for 2022. Various industry bodies and restaurant and hotel associations had met the LG and conveyed their concerns due to the red tape-ridden licensing regime,” the second official said.
The committee has recommended that the document scrutiny be completed in 10 days and applicants be provided a time of 15 days for rectifying the deficiencies, if any. Individual time limits have been set for the Delhi Police, MCD, Delhi Pollution Control Committee and the fire department to clear and process the application. “At the end of the prescribed timeline, NOC and license should be deemed issued and updated on the portal,” the committee report said. To prevent frivolous filing of applications multiple times, a processing fee of ₹1,000 will have to be deposited at the time of submission of the online application form.
The process of opening such units in the city needs NOCs and licenses from MCD, Delhi Fire Service, Delhi Police as well as DPCC. The panel has decided that a common calendar will be followed by all four agencies for issuing these NOCs and licenses. “In the earlier system, different agencies followed different calendars – financial year or calendar year. All four will now follow the coterminous financial year ending March 31 for the purpose of issuing and validity of licenses,” the second official said.
Sandeep Anand Goyle, managing committee member of the National Restaurant Association of India, said NRAI in October made a presentation before the LG, apprising him about the problems being faced by the food and beverages industry, especially after the Covid pandemic. “We were facing problems in getting licenses and policies were flawed. All these factors were put forward and we are happy that the administration has understood the pain points of the industry. We will be able to put a much better experience in the next year when the city hosts the G20 summit,” he said.
Goyle said the longer night operation hours should also be extended for stand-alone restaurants which are currently allowed to operate till 1am. “In the neighboring states, eateries are allowed to operate till 3-4am. If late operations can be allowed a few kilometers away, then there should not be any problem in permitting it in case of stand-alone units in Delhi as well,” he added. NRAI estimates that there are around 5,000 restaurants and eateries in the organized sector in Delhi.
The liberalized regime also proposes to do away with physical police verification in some cases and reduces the scope of some departments. “As per the rules approved by the LG, applications for banquet halls will not be looked into by the Delhi Police and applications for eating establishments on less than 90sqm and lodging establishments below 12m heights will not be looked into by the Delhi Fire Services anymore. While earlier compliance certificates with respect to fire safety, environmental norms, structural and electrical safety were obtained by the Delhi Police before issuing licence, such compliances will now be looked after by the respective agencies,” the official said.
“Instead of the earlier system of physical police verification of character and antecedents of applicants that led to complaints of harassment and corruption, the process was made completely faceless, with online certificates to be now issued in this regard by the special branch of Delhi Police instead of the local police stations,” the official added.