Trade Licence in Arunachal Pradesh

What is a trade licence in Arunachal Pradesh?

A trade licence in Arunachal Pradesh is official permission to carry on a specified trade at a specified place of business. Two arms of government matter here, and confusing them is the commonest mistake:

• The Department of Trade and Commerce, Government of Arunachal Pradesh notifies the statewide trade licence fee schedule, listing every trade item with its initial rate and its renewal rate. The current schedule was approved on the recommendation of the State Level Standing Committee and published in the Arunachal Pradesh Gazette (Extraordinary) No. 107, Vol. XXIV, Naharlagun, on 5 April 2017, under a notification dated 16 March 2017. It superseded the earlier order of 22 February 2012.
• The Itanagar Municipal Corporation (IMC) issues and renews the licence inside the capital municipal area. Its application form is addressed to the Commissioner, Itanagar Municipal Corporation, Itanagar.

IMC runs the service online at imc.arunachal.gov.in, where trade licence registration and renewal sit alongside birth registration, death registration, pet registration, water and property services. IMC publishes downloadable trade licence forms, the trade price list, supporting-document lists and process flows for both registration and renewal, and a guide to validating the digital signature on the certificate you download from the citizen login.

Who can and cannot apply for an Arunachal Pradesh trade licence?

Any person or firm carrying on a trade from a place of business inside the municipal area can apply. The IMC form recognises three kinds of business structure, permanent, semi-permanent and temporary, and three kinds of location, commercial area, domestic area and sector area. Firms must list every partner with a full address.

You cannot apply, or your application will fail, where:

• You cannot enclose the land or plot allotment number for the business premises, which the form asks for along with whether the plot is commercial or residential.
• Your Ward Corporator will not verify the application. The verification block on the form is not optional.
• You have no acceptable address proof, voter ID, Aadhaar, ST certificate or an electricity bill.
• You conceal an earlier licence that was suspended or cancelled. The form requires you to disclose it with the period and the reason, for yourself and for any associate member.
• The trade you propose is not permitted at that location under the Arunachal Pradesh Building Bye-Law 2010, which the applicant undertakes to abide by.
• Your business lies outside the municipal area, in which case the issuing authority is not the Itanagar Municipal Corporation and you must ask at the local urban body or district administration covering your town.

How to apply for a trade licence in Itanagar

1. Choose registration or renewal on the IMC portal. Open imc.arunachal.gov.in and go to Trade License, which offers Registration and Renewal separately, each with its own download form, supporting-document list and process flow.
2. Download and fill the application form. The IMC form asks for the applicant's name and parentage, present or permanent address with ward number, sector or colony, house number, post office, police station and district, the place of business, the business structure, the area type, the land or plot allotment number, the shop name, and the particulars of the business, what you will sell or deal in, listed item by item.
3. Attach the documents. Address proof (voter ID, Aadhaar, ST certificate or electricity bill), the land or plot allotment document, partner details if the applicant is a firm, and two stamp-size photographs affixed on the form.
4. Get the Ward Corporator's verification. The Ward Corporator signs with seal in the verification block. Your own signature, name, mobile number and email go in the applicant block.
5. Sign the undertaking. You certify the information is true and undertake to abide by section 111, sub-sections 1(b) and 2(b) of the Arunachal Municipal Act 2019 (Act No. 8 of 2019) and the Arunachal Pradesh Building Bye-Law 2010.
6. Submit and pay the notified fee. Pay the initial rate for your trade item under the Department of Trade and Commerce schedule, and keep the receipt.
7. Download the digitally signed licence. IMC issues certificates for download from the citizen login and publishes instructions on validating the digital signature in Adobe Reader: do that once, so you know the copy you are carrying is genuine.

What does a trade licence cost in Arunachal Pradesh?

The notified schedule sets an initial rate and a renewal rate equal to 50 per cent of the initial rate for every trade item, grouped by sector. Published examples:

The schedule runs across agri-horticulture items, forest-based industry and forest products, mineral ore and mineral-based products, and further sectors, so find the exact item that describes your business rather than a near neighbour — the difference between a "cane depot" at Rs 2,000 and a "cane furniture unit" at Rs 2,500 is real money over a renewal cycle.

Renewal and validity

An Arunachal Pradesh trade licence is renewed against the same trade item, at half the initial rate. IMC runs renewal as its own service on the portal, with a separate form, supporting-document list and process flow from the registration route: use the renewal path if you already hold a licence, rather than filing a fresh registration. If the nature of the business changes, the trade item and therefore the rate change with it, so declare the change rather than renewing under an item you have outgrown.

How do I check my application or reach IMC?

Use the application status and citizen login sections of imc.arunachal.gov.in, and the certificate download page once the licence is issued. IMC also publishes public notices, including a public notification on its trading licence bye-laws, and its ward list for Itanagar Municipality, on the same site, and runs an IMC control room on the toll-free number 1800-345-3173 for civic complaints such as garbage lifting. For a trade licence file specifically, the licence section of the corporation office is the right desk.

Why Arunachal Pradesh trade licence applications get rejected

• No land or plot allotment document for the place of business.
• Missing Ward Corporator verification on the form.
• Residential plot used for a trade the building bye-law does not permit there.
• Wrong trade item, giving a fee that does not match the business.
• Undisclosed earlier suspension or cancellation of a licence held by the applicant or an associate member.
• Illegible or expired address proof.

Grievance route and a warning about middlemen

Take an unresolved trade licence file to the licence section of the Itanagar Municipal Corporation first, quoting your application details, and then to the Commissioner, IMC, to whom the application is addressed in the first place. On fee questions the reference document is the Department of Trade and Commerce notification and its annexure of revised trade licence fees.

Pay only the notified rate for your trade item. The initial rate for a fresh licence, half of it at renewal, and always take a receipt. Those rates are published in the Arunachal Pradesh Gazette and on the IMC portal precisely so that nobody has to guess. No agent or "licence consultant" can lower the notified rate or make the corporation move faster, and no one is entitled to cash on the side. If you are asked for an amount that does not appear in the notified schedule, refuse and report it.