New Delhi: Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has provided relief to Delhi’s factory owners by modifying the factory licensing policy and approving two major reforms. These include the rationalisation of norms for floor-wise factory licences and the issuance of factory licences to the actual occupier or tenant of relocation industrial plots in Badli, Narela, Bawana and other industrial areas.
The reform to grant licences to factories running in a recognised approved industrial area will help more than 25,000 factory owners access finance from banks and avail themselves of the benefits of govt schemes and programmes smoothly, claimed an MCD official.
The changes, which have been approved by MCD commissioner Ashwani Kumar, allow a single owner of a factory building to obtain one single licence instead of separate floor-wise licences, provided they conduct integrated activities on various floors for manufacturing one final product.
An official said that earlier there was uncertainty about whether the factory owner was required to take a factory licence for each floor. “Now, in the case of a single GST number for the factory whose industrial or manufacturing processes are carried out on different floors of the factory building, the factory owner is required to obtain a single industrial licence. However, the activities carried out on different floors must be integral to the declared factory activity in the GST,” the official explained.
“In the case of different GST numbers for factories running on different floors of a building, the factory owner shall be required to take a factory licence in respect of each such GST-related factory unit or activity running on different floors,” he clarified. Even in the case of different owners of the various floors of the factory building, each such owner shall be required to take a factory licence separately.
“The above guidelines shall be subject to strict compliance with the sanctioned building plan, fire safety norms, DPCC consent, etc.”
Further, the civic body has offered relief to the operators running factories on relocated industrial plots on a sub-let or tenant basis or through general power of attorney who were not granted factory licences, as the perpetual lease of industrial plots under the relocation scheme did not permit sale, transfer, assignment, or parting with the possession of the plot in industrial estates unless consented by DSIIDC or lease executing authority.
“Now, MCD under sections 416 and 417 of the DMC Act has decided to grant licences to such factory operators subject to fulfilling environment or safety-related norms. The licence shall, however, stand revoked in the event of closure of the factory by DSIIDC or lease executing authority or DPCC. Further, the factory operators in relocation industrial plots shall have to give an affidavit that no industry is operating at the old place from where relocation was done,” said the official.
