Raj hikes trade licence fees after nine years

Jaipur: The Rajasthan govt has revised trade licence fees for hotels, restaurants and several small businesses for the first time since 2017, with some categories witnessing a steep increase of up to 5 times. The revised rates, to be implemented from May 26, are expected to directly impact small traders, gym owners, beauty parlours and mobile food vendors across urban areas.The new fee structure, issued by the Department of Local Self Govt, covers businesses including gyms, bakeries, sweet shops, beauty parlours, tea and fast-food carts, soda shops and hotels. Different rates have been fixed for municipal corporation, municipal council and municipality areas.Under the revised structure, hotels with up to 50 rooms will now have to pay between Rs 15,000 and Rs 25,000 as annual trade licence fees, depending on civic body area. Hotels with 51 to 100 rooms will be charged between Rs 30,000 and Rs 50,000, while larger hotels with over 150 rooms may have to pay up to Rs 1.5 lakh.The increase is also significant for smaller businesses. Gym owners in municipal corporation areas will now pay up to Rs 5,000 in licence fees, compared with much lower rates earlier. Similarly, licence fees for beauty parlours and mobile tea and fast-food vendors have also been raised considerably.For mobile street food businesses such as tea and fast-food vehicles, the revised fee has been increased to Rs 1,500, Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000 across different urban local body categories. Earlier, the fee ranged between Rs 500 and Rs 2,000.