Licenses for online food delivery services in India

Technology has reached such great heights that whatever you need you can get it on your doorstep be it food, clothes, electronic devices, furniture, and many more. If you are down, toiling all day long and living alone and don’t want to cook it is so elementary to order your food online by just scrolling your mobile phone on any of your online food delivery apps and in no time it gets delivered on your doorstep. So, if you are planning to start an online food delivery business in India, it is very beneficial especially when most people want to enjoy a tasty and affordable meal in the comfort of one’s home after a long day. You must have 7 licenses for online food delivery in order to run your business without any complications and legal interruption.

Indeed it is a lucrative business but on the other hand, if you want it to work smoothly you need to comply with some norms. Most importantly you need to obtain several important licenses for running your online food delivery service in India. Every food business must meet FSSAI standards.

Licenses Required For Online Food Delivery Services

The licenses for online food delivery service in India are enlisted below:

  1. Shops and Establishments Act License
  2. FSSAI License
  3. Health or Trade License
  4. Trademark Registration
  5. GST Registration
  6. E-commerce agreement
  7. Signage license

Shops and Establishments Act License:

Either you own a food on wheel business or you are the owner of a fine dining restaurant or you are running an online delivery service you must have a Shops and Establishments Act License also termed as Gumasta. You being the owner must apply for it within 30 days of business commencement. The license is State-specific and is regulated by the Department of Labour so the license must be registered with the respective State Government. If any difficulty occurs during the phase of obtaining the Shops and Establishments Act License, you can contact an experienced consultant for help. 

FSSAI License:

It is very important to look after the quality of the food products consumed by every person now and then. Thus, the next very crucial license for commencing any food business in India is the FSSAI License. One can obtain the FSSAI License by filing an agreement with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The FSSAI License is a certificate that ensures the safety of food products issued by a particular food authority of India. Generally, there are three different slabs of FSSAI License namely FSSAI Basic License, FSSAI State License, and FSSAI Central License. Depending on the nature of your business and the annual turnover one can issue any of the above FSSAI Licenses.  

Health or Trade License:

Any business whose goods and services have a direct effect on public health such as public eating places, storage, and sale, manufacturings, etc must acquire a Health or Trade License. To obtain a Health or Trade License you must contact the respective Municipal Corporation of your city. By acquiring this license you will be permitted for carrying out your trade or business in certain goods and services which directly affect the public health. The Health or Trade License makes sure that your business or establishment follows all the hygiene and safety norms to obey public health.

Trademark Registration:

  As you are running a food business you will surely have displays and logos for your business. This agreement contains the information of items or services being offered and also explains the payment terms and conditions. The agreements are yearly. An e-commerce business needs to ensure that they have a trademark registration to protect the logo against any sort of malpractices.

GST Registration:

GST registration is mainly for people who are related to business transactions. According to Section 2 (44) of the CGST Act, 2017, every business supplying goods or rendering services must have a GST registration done. It is a consumption tax collected by the central or state government levied on supplying goods and rendering services. GST revolves around the statement “ One Nation One Tax “. There is a threshold limit of Rs. 40 lakhs above which the businesses must have the GST Registration but for e-commerce businesses, there are no threshold limits. Such businesses must obtain their GST Registration irrespective of their annual turnover or income.

E-Commerce agreement:

 A contractual relationship between the website owner of the particular business and the third party is known as the E-Commerce agreement. A standard E-Commerce agreement must have the following essential points highlighted such as trademark, details of products or services, the term of the agreement, payment, customer payment, and customer information. There are many other things an E-Commerce agreement has so that no dispute or confusion arises when the business has settled well.

Signage license:

Since you are starting with food business in the online platform you will surely want others to know about it. To make people aware of your business, it is important to promote it through various marketing strategies like positive reviews for your brand, images posters, and the list is endless. Therefore, to employ the different kinds of marketing strategies you need to have a Signage License. You can obtain this license from your local municipal corporation. 

Food being the primary concern of every living being and the demand for good quality food in this “microwave generation” has resulted in food businesses to reach great heights of success. But yes, you need to manage your food business correctly to have a huge number of customers in and create a good base and ensure to have all the above licenses. 

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