Food is something that will live with the human race until the very end because to survive a man needs fuel in the form of food. Moreover, with an increased standard of living. Restaurants are the future. In addition to the aforementioned point, people nowadays with their busy schedules don’t have time to make their food. More often than not people tend to either dine in the restaurant or order something from their favorite restaurant. This is where the online food delivery apps come in. As of 2020 after the pandemic hit the country Zomato and Swiggy emerged as online food delivery giants. 

The first and foremost thing to open a restaurant is the plan, niche, and good food. Moreover, opening a restaurant is not a walk in the park. You have to thoroughly study the market and know about the needs of people in the area. Once you are ready with the adequate resources and capital to start your restaurant, one has to look at the legal compliances to avoid their restaurant from any legal complication in the future.

When thinking about opening a restaurant, think about the liabilities and the tax slab one wants in his/her restaurant. Because making a decision just by copying what others are doing or what is the regular practice; might not suit one's needs and one might end up making a wrong decision that cannot be reversed.

Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) is a food license that is required by all restaurants because it is a food security license. This license holds the utmost importance because it confirms the food safety for the customers, and it is a regulatory body to ensures safety not only ensures the food safety of restaurants but the safety of all food products across the country.

Interestingly, the registration under FSSAI is an easy process, as it requires a set of documents that is mentioned on their website and then fills the form, once the form is filed and all the documents are submitted a confirmation is received in the form of a certificate with a 14 digit registration number.

Then comes the other important licenses like Health trade license, GST registration, Shop, and establishment license, Eating house license, Fire safety license, Environmental clearance certificate, and signage license. 

But getting the licensing procedure done in India for the restaurant business is not an easy cakewalk. Restaurants in the country to date face harassment due to ‘license raj’ and hoped the municipal corporations will comply with the authority's directive.

Property laws, ownership, and leasing agreements can often be complicated and messy too. “You need to check your titles before you sign anything, you have to have a great lawyer on board. What has happened with Goa is that a lot of the people whose relatives moved abroad have put cases against the property. So there’s lots of disputed land here,” says Chef Radhika Khandelwal. “Because these are mostly ancestral homes, there isn't a direct owner. We still don't have a license to serve alcohol, because we need the original owner’s signature and they’re dead and gone,” says Chef Pablo Miranda of Patraos Deli, Antonio at 31 and Makutsu.

Further, eating out in restaurants, coffee houses, hotels, food courts, and five-star hotels has also become costlier in several areas in the capital as the corporation has increased health trade license fees in areas under the jurisdiction of the erstwhile North and East MCDs, to bring uniformity in rates.

The license fee for restaurants up to 20 seats, which was between Rs 240 - Rs 10,000, has been hiked to Rs 10,000 for the whole of Delhi. The license fee for coffee houses was between Rs 240 - Rs 10,000 and has also been increased to Rs 10,000. The corporations used to earn more than Rs 16 crore per annum from health trade licenses — North (Rs 5 crore), South (Rs 8.5 crore), and East (Rs 3 crore).

To get the license, establishments have to submit an array of documents, and the bone of contention has been that of having an Occupancy Certificate (OC), which many of them have failed to produce. “The nature of Bengaluru has changed from ‘pub city’ to ‘not pub city’ and back to ‘pub city’ with a vengeance. But the requirement of documents for all practical purposes has become impossible. A lot of businesses don’t have OCs. Why is only one type of business being singled out?” asked Manu Chandra from Bengaluru. 

However, according to Shaival Desai, Chief Growth Officer of Petpooja, procuring the necessary licenses in India for setting up a restaurant is a much easier process now compared to a few years ago. “Almost all licenses that are required for setting up a restaurant can be applied online. The Government of India has made the process of acquiring all the licenses smooth and interference-free by creating state-wise channels. This is mainly because of the elimination of the middleman i.e. an agent. Restaurateurs themselves can log on to the respective portal of the license they want and can fill in the mandatory details and wait for the license to arrive. All verifications are done virtually except for the ones which require an on-site inspection. It has now become a much simpler process,” he said.

South Delhi Mayor Anamika had also commented that the health trade license is issued online for ease of doing business and there is no interference by any officer. The entire process is transparent.

Although there is a lot that’s going on in the license kitty, it still is a long due wait. Where some licenses have been completely digitalized, a few are a major pain for the owners. Not to forget the illegalities linked to attaining such licenses. The industry has been demanding single window clearance but awaits to be heard even after years of pleas.