The State Government has proposed a set of amendments to its municipal laws by which micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) as well as other industries in certain notified industry sectors will be exempt from possessing trade license.
The Karnataka Municipalities Act as well as Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act empower the municipal bodies such as city municipal corporation, city municipal council, town municipal council and town panchayats to issue trade licenses to businesses and industries and collect a fee. In fact, license fee for regulating and building construction activities and trade license is one of the major sources of revenue for municipalities.
Industry experts have hailed the government move as an important step towards easing doing of business in Karnataka.
Anuj Sharma, President, Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC), said:
“The proposed amendment to the Karnataka Municipal Act, exempting MSME and certain notified industry sectors from the purview of Trade License is an encouraging move by the State Government. This crucial proposal will support the ease of doing business in the State as it will cut down time to set up industries and also help growth of industry particularly MSME sector”.
Thyagu Valliappa, Senior Vice President, BCIC added:
“The proposal will further help operationalisation of the new Industrial Policy and also at the same time give necessary impetus to attract fresh investments at the “Invest Karnataka Summit” scheduled to be held in February 2016.”
Image Courtesy: The Hindu
