TimesView Most business establishments in Bengaluru are, astonishingly, unlicensed, according to BBMP. This is problematic on multiple counts and a nightmare for city planners and officials looking to apply common standards, say, for quality of products/services and for general safety. Traders operating without a licence are only a part of the problem. Impractical rules that make entire neighbourhoods off-limits to everyday shops and complicated procedures that affect compliance are also to blame. Hopefully, an online process will ease the situation and encourage small businesses to register their operations.

BENGALURU: Nearly 1.3 lakh of the 1.8 lakh commercial establishments operating in the city lack trade licences, senior BBMP officials said, citing the findings of a recent inspection.Most commercial establishments in Bengaluru are old and are running without trade licence, they said. Acting on a directive from BBMP commissioner BH Anil Kumar, the civic agency’s special projects commissioner Ravi Surpur conducted a manual drive to inspect trade establishments.The first inspection showed there were only 50,000 commercial establishments in the city. A startled Surpur ordered a second inspection, which revealed two of every three business set-ups were operating without authorisation. The BBMP exercise began on December 4, 2019 and ended on February 7, 2020. Blaming the existing zonal regulations for the situation, Kumar said, “It is impossible to not have a single commercial establishment in a residential area. This issue needs to be addressed.”West zone leads in unlicensed business establishments. According to BBMP, 50,274 (79%) of the 63,246 trade establishments in the zone lack licences. “Many establishments in west Bengaluru are really old and were set up decades ago. These people have been operating them for a long time,” said an official.South and west zones comprise some of the oldest parts of Bengaluru and are residential zones with roads less than 40 feet wide. Most commercial establishments here are meant for residents’ daily needs, the official added. They include salons, bakeries and tea shops, Kumar said. While west zone includes areas like Malleswaram, south zone has localities like Chickpet and Jayanagar.Officials harrass us: TradersWhen BBMP officials recently asked Chickpet traders to apply for a trade licence, they said they didn’t want to. “The traders often feel harassed by officials. To address this concern, we’ve gone in for an online trade licence renewal process,” Anil Kumar said. Niteesh Lal, a Chickpet trader, said BBMP officials harass traders in the guise of trade licence. “They ask for hefty bribes and we are forced to pay as we fear they will close our shops,” said Lal.In Mahadevapura, a comparatively recent zone, only 3,044 of the 8,090 establishments have a trade licence. “It is a newly developed zone and the roads are over 40 feet wide, which allows for setting up of commercial establishments,” an official said.