Mar 2016

Disclaimer:

The post is purely from a practical standpoint and is not a way to

educate the readers about the theoretical requirements. You can get

the list of licenses from many other websites via Google search.

Additionally, whatever I talk about is from my experience of running

a restaurant in Mumbai and other cities might have their own rules

and regulations.

In every business, you need to procure license from local authorities

to run it legally. Running a food manufacturing business is no

different and here, I will talk about getting licenses for the restaurant

business.

Usually, you need the following licenses to run a restaurant in

Mumbai.

◦ Shop and establishment license, commonly known as Gumasta

◦ Health License

◦ Fire NOC (information here under Health License section)

◦ Food License

◦ Electrical department NOC

◦ Society NOC

◦ Police NOC

This is the most basic license and it is relatively easy to get this license.

All you have to do is go to the nearest BMC office in your area and tell them that you

have opened a new shop for which you need Gumasta license.

The BMC official will provide you a form that you can fill and submit right away.

Typically, they require documents like rent agreement/sale deed, PAN card, photo,

etc.

Once the form is submitted, it is sent to the concerned officer whose job is to visit the

address and verify that the shop is running.

Post verification, the BMC will generate the registration certificate that you can collect

from their office.

Usually, the process takes around 2-3 weeks and it would be a good practice to take

regular updates by visiting the BMC office about your license.

The minimum fee for Gumasta is ~1,500 and it varies with the number of employees

you want to register.

Obtaining a health license is a longer process because it requires

several documents.

There are the two kinds of licenses that the department provides

◦ License for sale of prepared goods - Permission to only sell goods and not

manufacture in the premises

◦ License for Food manufacturing - Permission to manufacture and sell goods

Depending on your requirement and the availability of the documents, the

department will provide you either of the license.

The initial process is similar to that of Gumasta where you need to visit the

concerned BMC office and meet the Health Inspector of your area. You need to

discuss the case with Health Inspector and he/she would guide you to fill the required

form(s) and the list of required documents.

Usually, they ask for the following documents-

◦ Leave and license agreement / Sale deed as per the case may be

◦ Electricity Bill and or Society Maintenance Bill

◦ Society NOC

◦ NOC from Fire department

◦ Occupation certificate (OC) of the building

◦ Building layout plan

◦ Shop and Establishment license (Gumasta)

The difficult part in getting this license is that you need to submit Gumasta license.

You cannot get Gumasta without running the shop. Legally, you can't run the food

shop without Health License. Hence, you are caught in this loop and you end up

paying for the so called 'setting' with the police officers.

Before you take a shop on rent, it is advisable to get hold of the Building Occupation

Certificate and the Building Layout plan. If you are unable to get a copy of it, at-least

try to make sure that the Owner / Society personnel has these two documents. You

might be tempted to get a shop at a fantastic deal but the risk is that you might end

up paying bribe if you are unable to get these documents. Hence, before you sign a

rent agreement for the shop, better ask for these two documents from the owner.

Once, you provide the relevant documents, the Health Officer will send you to the

Chief Fire Officer with an application form asking to verify the premises and

provide the 'No Objection Certificate'. You will have to submit this document in the

concerned Fire department and wait till the Fire Officer turns up at your shop for

verification. When the Fire Officer comes to check the premises, they verify the

following-

◦ Area of the shop (as per the conversations it should be at-least 300 Sq. ft.)

◦ Availability of Fire Extinguishers

◦ Training of staff members in terms of usage of Fire Extinguishers

◦ Availability of two exits at the place

◦ Proper chimney/exhaust for smoke

Post verification from the Fire department, you will need to chase the Fire Officer to

get the NOC. Once you have all the required documents in hand, you need to submit

their copies in the Health office and chase the concerned Health Officer to get the

required licenses.

The application for obtaining a food license can be done online through this link -

Apply Food License.

You can fill the required information as per the instructions provided online and once

the application process is complete, you can visit the FSSAI office in Bandra East to

check the registration status.

It might take 2-3 months for obtaining the license.

Further, if you are a startup it would be a good idea to obtain a license of INR 100

that is applicable for those businesses whose turnover is less than INR 12 Lacs per

annum.

Once your turnover is about to exceed, you can go for a registration of INR 2,500.

The process is fairly organized and couple of follow ups with the department can get

you the certificate easily.

In order to obtain NOC from electrical department, you need to first identify which

area office has the jurisdiction over your concerned locality, i.e. where your shop is

located.

Post department identification, you need to identify a certified electrical contractor

and get a test report from him for your shop.

The contractor may charge INR 800-1200 for this test report depending on your

negotiation and relation with him.

Once you have the test report, you can apply for the NOC in the concerned

department.

It will not take more than a week to get the department NOC if you are able to

convince the officer with the right 'amount' of resources.

They will provide two copies of the NOC, out of which one will be for the concerned

Police department in the area.

You will usually get this NOC quickly if there was a running restaurant at your

selected shop before you leased it. Otherwise, it would be better to ask around

people in the locality about their opinion on having a restaurant at that point.

Generally, society bodies create issues if the members of the society are not

supportive of the idea of a restaurant. People may have issues because of smoke

during food manufacturing, noise during cooking in the night time, too much water

used by your staff members (if your staff use general society washrooms), etc.

Also, understand the relation of the shop owner with the society governing bodies. If

there is some conflict going on between them, it could hamper you.

Once you have signed the agreement, you will have to submit it in the society office.

At that same time or at least before you start running the restaurant put an

application for getting the NOC.

The format of NOC is usually a document on society letterhead addressed to the

concerned body about society having no issues in having a restaurant at the

concerned place, signed by the chairman or secretary with a society name stamp on

it. With proper follow up, you could get this document in a week's time. Further, you

should not wait to get it till the need arises.

This is the last NOC that you need to obtain, post which you can run your restaurant

without any hassles.

The process is similar where you need to reach out to the ACP office supervising

your locality and submit an application asking for the NOC.

The application will be forwarded by ACP office to the concerned police station with

the intent to get documents and verification of the premises. Additionally, the ACP

office will also ask for a 'Character Certificate' of the owner.

A copy of all the above documents mentioned here shall be submitted to the station

officer. Further, the police officer will ask for background information of the owner to

generate the 'Character Certificate'.

These formalities may take around 2-3 months depending on the availability of the

police officer and your documents.

The police department will then revert to the ACP office with your documents and a

verification report, post which you will be summoned to the ACP office. You need to

discuss the case with the concerned personnel in the ACP office and if they find

everything fine, you will be provided the NOC.