Trade licence: Private hospitals told to pay 100% fine or apply afresh

BENGALURU: Misreading a government order in September 2017, which said private

hospitals

and clinics need not produce

trade licence

certificates while registering themselves under the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (KPME) Act, several private health establishments in the city have not paid the trade licence fee for 2018.


With the

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike

(

BBMP

) having started collecting the fee for 2019, the errant hospitals are bound to pay 100% penalty or go for fresh trade licence registration, with a written statement on why they failed to pay the previous year’s fee.

“The government never exempted us from paying the annual trade licence fee. Many doctors failed to understand this and have not paid the amount. Though it was our demand that we be exempted from obtaining trade licence, that never happened,” said Dr R Ravindra, secretary, Private Hospitals and

Nursing Homes Association

(PHANA).
PHANA has sent messages to its member establishments to pay the fee to respective local self-governments.

The September 2017 order, in fact, was withdrawn in 2018 after urban local bodies (ULBs) reported dip in revenue under the trade licence fee head. The ULBs were also told that trade licence certificate copy was mandatory while registering under the KPME Act.

As per the annual report of the health and family welfare department, there are over 26,600 private health establishments in the state, including Ayush (ayurveda, yoga and

naturopathy

, unani, siddha and homoeopathy) units.
There are over 900 registered private health establishments in BBMP limits and their annual trade licence fee ranges from Rs 3,000-Rs 50,000, depending on the size of the establishments. The BBMP earns Rs 43 crore annually as trade licence fee from private health establishments alone. In the year 2018-19, the Palike’s earnings fell as several hospitals didn’t pay the licence fee.