Small vending licence vendors of static units of the railways have sought grant of renewals to be continued for individual licensees. They want to be treated as equal to the co-operative societies, companies, huf, and partnership firms, who are allowed to renew their licenses.
They wanted an end to discrimination among licensees by issuing uniform policy instructions by the Railway Board.
The policy of transfer of licence in the name of the dependent in case of death of the license vendor may be continued by all the divisions uniformly so that the dependent family of the license holder may be able to live. The name of the dependent (legal heir) may be incorporated in the license itself as a nominee so that after the death of the licensee vendor, there may not be any ambiguity or difficulty to the dependent (legal heir) for transfer of license in his/her name.
Use of commercial gas: The use of Commercial Gas for cooking purposes was discontinued in view of safety measures by the Railway Board which resulted in the non-availability of hot items like Tea, Puri-Sabzi, Pakora-Samosa, etc. to the Passengers. Vendors want the Railway Board to implement the instructions of the Railway Board for the use of commercial gas on platforms.
The 18 per cent GST charged over Licence Fee is an unbearable increase in the amount of license fee and an extra burden upon small licensees. Licensee vendors are basically providing passenger’s amenities of food and beverages, and they are selling most of the packed items on which GST is already levied by manufacturers/distributors/suppliers.
They are not collecting any GST from the passengers as items are being sold on Railway’s fixed prescribed selling rates. Small businesses and individuals with annual aggregate turnover of fewer than 20 lakh were allowed GST exemption. Amongst these licensees vendors of catering vending static units, one and all is having a turnover less than the said limit. And as such no licensee of GMU, SMU is covered under the preview of levy GST. Hence the GST on License Fee may be exempted for Small Licensees Vendors.
The electricity consumption charges are being charged from the licensees of static units at triple times more than the market rates i.e. the rates on which the electricity is being purchased by the Railway Board as per the agreement from electric supply companies/corporations. Due to this, the licensees have to bear the extra burden and heavy monetary loss, which is completely against the judicial process, policy process, and Indian Contract Law. It is, therefore, demanded that the Electricity Charges should be charged at the same rates at which the electric companies have supplied the electricity to the Railway, and the Railway is not supposed to sell electric energy but facilitate it for their interest in providing passenger amenities of catering services on Railway Platform.