Small shopkeepers in Karnataka unite to vehemently oppose government’s bid to introduce ‘License Raj’ in state through draconian bye-laws

Bengaluru: More than 50,000 small shopkeepers under the aegis of the Karnataka State Retail Beedi-Cigarette Merchants Association, which represents the Karnataka unit of the Federation of Retailer Association of India (FRAI), have been protesting across the state against the government’s bid to introduce ‘License Raj’ through the Karnataka Municipalities (Regulations and Inspection of Places Used for Sale of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products) Model Bye-Laws, 2020.

The aggrieved retailers have been holding protests in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Hubli, Mangaluru, among other cities, to voice their opposition against the proposed regulation, which will make it impossible for them to sustain their families. Shopkeepers in large numbers gathered in Bengaluru on Friday to carry out a protest against the draconian law.

The Karnataka State Retail Beedi-Cigarette Merchants Association believes that the proposed regulation will be devastating for lakhs of small traders and their family members, who have already suffered humungous financial setbacks in the last couple of years due to Covid-19 lockdowns and other restrictions. It has emphasised that too many tobacco laws will only increase the scope of harassment and corruption by enforcement officials.

The Association is a body of more than two lakh micro, small and medium retailers from across Karnataka. It also represents the livelihood of more than 10 lakh poorest of the poor retailers and their families and is known for raising issues concerning their lives and livelihoods.

Explaining the concerns around the proposed bye-laws, B. N. Murali Krishna, President, Karnataka State Retail Beedi-Cigarette Merchants Association, said, “On account of the provisions of the Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution Act, 2003, COTPA, our members are already being subjected to daily harassment by enforcement officials, who take advantage of their illiteracy and lack of awareness to extract gratifications. As per the draft Model Bye-Laws, tobacco product sellers will have to get a license, which will be renewed every year. In addition to that, multiple obligations on the part of the retailers, such as the display of license and maintenance of a suggestion book, along with heavy penalties in case of non-compliance, have been proposed in the regulation.”

The Association believes that such measures will cause massive harassment to lakhs of poor and mostly uneducated micro-retailers at the hands of enforcement officials. It will also lead to a sharp increase in the cost of doing business at a time when retailers are reeling under the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Murali Krishna added that based on the past experience with other laws, the very act of getting a license will be challenging for small sellers, who do not have the money to pay the fees and are not educated enough to complete the paperwork required for licensing.

“More laws will also mean more opportunities for local officials to harass our members. The Prime Minister and Karnataka Chief Minister have taken several important measures to simplify processes for trading in Karnataka in the true spirit of ‘ease of doing business’ and ‘promotion of entrepreneurship’. However, the Urban Development Ministry’s proposal to make licences mandatory for trading in tobacco products through the Model Bye-laws and its draconian clauses is in complete contradiction with the Prime Minister and Chief Minister’s vision for the state.”

The draft Model Bye-laws state that if any ‘bad incident’ occurs at a licensed shop, the same has to be reported to the authority and no one will be allowed to enter the shop premises until the issue is addressed. Since a ‘bad incident’ is not defined, it is clear that the only objective behind this exercise is to cause hardships to small shopkeepers. The members of the Karnataka State Retail Beedi-Cigarette Merchants Association belong to the lowest economic strata of society. It will be impossible for them to afford extra money for licenses and renewals.

The Association has demanded that the state government must provide alternate means of livelihood to its members before implementing such rules, which will surely result in a loss of income for lakhs of traders. It has further claimed that its members sustain their livelihood by selling goods of daily needs like biscuits, soft drinks, mineral water, bidi, cigarettes, etc.

Their pre-lockdown earnings were about Rs 6,000-12000 per month which is barely adequate to feed two square meals a day to an entire family. During the pandemic, many of them had to borrow money to run their businesses. Now that things have opened, such regressive laws are being proposed to further derail their businesses.

The Association is shocked to see that the Karnataka Urban Development Ministry, instead of supporting small retailers, has come up with an order that will deal a deadly blow to them. It is of the view that the proposed licensing law for selling tobacco products is brought because of pressure from anti-tobacco NGOs with vested interests. The development will only support shifting of tobacco retailing business to foreign companies/supermarkets/malls, hurting livelihoods of lakhs of small shopkeepers.

India already has one of the toughest anti-tobacco laws in the world, which includes 85 per cent graphic health warnings on packets, no sale to minors, no sale within 100 yards around educational institutions, etc. The Association believes that the existing provisions under COTPA 2003 for tobacco control/trade are more than sufficient for regulating tobacco products. Therefore, there is absolutely no need to introduce any new regulation.

The Karnataka State Retail Beedi Cigarette Merchants Association requests the Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai not to implement the Karnataka Municipalities (Regulations and inspection of places used for sale of Cigarettes and other tobacco products) Model Bye-Laws, 2020, mandating licensing requirement for selling tobacco products issued by the Urban Development Department and instead help our members recover from the loss of the income due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

–IANS