MARGAO
The Margao Municipal Council on Wednesday cracked a whip against business establishments operating in the commercial capital sans the mandatory trade license.
While a team of municipal officials sealed as many as five establishments, including electrical shops and saloons in the morning session, five more shops faced the brunt of the team as it went about sealing the business premises in the evening.
The sudden drive caught the erring businessmen by surprise. Not knowing what to do many of them rushed to the civic body to ascertain their trade license dues.
The municipal team went about cracking the whip against the erring establishments after receiving an order from Chief Officer Johnson Fernandes to seal all establishments operating sans the mandatory license.
The team descended on Malbhat and sealed as many as five shops, including one electrical and one tailoring shop, after the owners failed to produce trade license documents.
The move had an immediate reaction in the locality as evident by the fact that
many a establishment operating without the trade license closing for the day to escape action.
Account and Taxation Officer Abhay Rane told the media that the five shops which were sealed on Wednesday had no trade license to operate. “When the team insisted on the trade license, they could not produce the documents. The shop owners are bound to prominently display the licenses in the establishments,” Rane added.
In the evening, the team descended on the Ranghavi Towers opposite the municipal building, only to find five establishments, including a fashion centre, two financial institutions, operating without the mandatory trade license. Chief Officer Johnson Fernandes told The Goan that the ongoing drive against the business establishments operating illegally will
continue, saying that no trade is allowed in the municipal jurisdiction without the mandatory trade license.
Incidentally, MMC had last year come out with a single-window scheme for all business establishments to obtain the trade license, but the offer had come a cropper with hardly a couple of establishments availing of the scheme.
