Maharashtra Allows 24/7 Trade, But Not For Liquor Shops or Pubs

Maharashtra notified rules allowing businesses to stay open round the clock but will continue restrictions on outlets that serve and sell alcohol, based on an article by BloombergQuint.

The state’s Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Service Condition) Act 2017, passed in August and notified after the governor’s nod, is modelled on a central law. It paves the way for pharmacies, shopping malls, restaurants, and banks to provide 24/7 services, particularly in larger cities like Mumbai. Yet, there will be time restrictions on liquor shops, pubs, and discotheques, according to the notification.

This will help only during the festive season. That’s when people venture out in the night. We have noticed that customers usually don’t come really late in the evening for shopping....We would have loved bars and restaurants to open late night because that’s what people are looking for.

Anupam T, vice-president at Oberoi Mall, told BloombergQuint

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Employees are expected to work for not more than nine hours a day with a mandatory weekly off. Women will only work in day shifts but can be stationed between 9:30 pm and 7 am with their consent, the rules said.

The amendment exempts small traders and shops that employ less than 10 workers from registration for a licence. There are about 35 lakh such businesses across Maharashtra, with Mumbai accounting for more than a quarter of them.

Of the 35 lakh shops and establishments, nearly 22.10 lakh are with zero employees and run by proprietors, while another 12.13 lakh (with 35.32 lakh workers) have between one and nine workers, and 84,702 establishments (32.22 lakh workers) have 10 or more workers,

Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar, labour minister tells the Hindustan Times

(With inputs from BloombergQuint and Hindustan Times)

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