CM Stalin to constitute committee to simplify trade license for small traders in rural areas

CHENNAI: Censuring Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami for criticizing the recent GO mandating license for even small trades like petty shops in rural areas, State Rural Development Minister I Periasamy on Thursday said that the practice of issuing license to traders in rural areas was being done in the name of “Dangerous and Offensive Trade License” even during the tenure of EPS and the LoP has issued a statement as usual without knowing facts.

Minister Periasamy also announced that Chief Minister M K Stalin has decided to constitute a consultation committee comprising department officials and traders to simplify the process of issuing licenses to small traders in rural areas.

Clarifying that the trade license practice in village panchayats was introduced in 1958 and confirmed under section 159 of the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act 1994 enacted in the distant AIADMK regime, the rural development minister said that the licenses were issued under the same law in the name of “Dangerous and Offensive Trade License” during the tenure of EPS. “After heading a government even without knowing this, he (EPS) has woken up from his slumber and issued a statement as usual,” remarked Periasamy.

Pointing out that the number of trade licenses rose from 85,649 in 2011-12 during Jayalalithaa’s tenure to 2,05,100 in 2020-21 tenure of EPS, the minister said that the license fee increased from Rs 5.40 crore to Rs 12.90 crore in the same period. “All these data are available in files. He cannot deny it. After doing everything, he is now pretending to speak for the rural traders. The people are not ready to buy it.”

Circulating a copy of a gazette notification issued in 2018 during his tenure, fixing license fee for various trades, including petty shops and tailor shops at union and panchayat levels in Coimbatore, the minister said, “License fee existed always. I am only reminding that license fees for traders existed even in the AIADMK tenure.”

New GO simplified license

Clarifying the old practice insisted on annual renewal of the trade licenses and the rural local bodies were collecting higher license fee using their resolutions, the minister said that the dangerous and offensive trade license has been simplified into trade license with provision to avail them online and renew them every three years and issue deemed approval in case of delay in acting on such license applications within 30 days. Asserting that the Dravidian model regime also stands by the traders, minister Periasamy referred to a representation by a federation of traders associations with the Chief Minister on Thursday and said that the CM has issued orders to constitute a committee of concerned officials and traders representatives to study the demands of the traders. The committee will study the process of simplifying the issue of licenses and make recommendations to the government. The new law will be enforced based on the recommendation of the committee, the minister added.