West Bengal Shops and Establishments Act, 1963
Kolkata is where we are, at 129A Bangur Avenue, and it is also the city where the second-document question has the most settled local answer. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation trade licence is deeply embedded in how business is done here. Almost every established business holds one, landlords ask about it, and banks recognise it immediately. For a great many Kolkata proprietors it is the natural second document, ahead of both GST and the Shop Act.
The KMC trade licence, or registration under the West Bengal Shops and Establishments Act, 1963, or professional tax enrolment, since West Bengal levies it. Kolkata proprietors have more options than most cities and rarely need to take GST for banking purposes alone.
Governing legislation for premises and employment: West Bengal Shops and Establishments Act, 1963. Thresholds, portals and whether registration or intimation applies differ by state and change from time to time, so we confirm the current position for your specific case before you pay for anything.
The Burrabazar and Canning Street trading houses are the specific Kolkata case. Many have operated for decades on relationships rather than registrations, and are now formalising because a marketplace, a bank or a corporate customer has asked them to. The work there is not filing forms so much as establishing which documents already exist, which are lapsed, and which name the business is actually carrying. Old trade licences in a father's name, GST taken and abandoned, and a trade name nobody ever protected are the usual findings, and they need untangling in a particular order.
Trading and distribution businesses across Burrabazar, Canning Street and the northern markets, small manufacturers in the leather and hosiery segments, professionals across the southern neighbourhoods, and retail throughout.
One thing to be clear about before anything else, because almost every page on this subject is not. There is no such thing as a sole proprietorship registration certificate in India. No Act creates the entity, no registrar records it, and nothing is issued. The business exists the moment you start trading. What people mean by registration is the set of registrations under other laws that produce a document in the firm name, and what a bank actually asks for, implementing the RBI KYC framework, is two of those documents plus your own KYC and a proprietary declaration. Udyam is free and instant and makes a good first one. The second is the decision worth paying for, and taking voluntary GST purely to fill that slot is the expensive mistake this page exists to prevent.
| Item | Position as at August 2026 |
|---|---|
| Constituting statute | None. No Act creates a proprietorship and no certificate is issued |
| What a bank wants | Two government-issued documents in the firm name, proprietor KYC, and a proprietary declaration |
| Udyam | Free, instant and lifetime on udyamregistration.gov.in. No government fee |
| MSME limits, from 1 April 2025 | Micro up to Rs 2.5 crore investment and Rs 10 crore turnover, small Rs 25 crore and Rs 100 crore |
| Classification basis | Composite. Both conditions must hold, and exports are excluded from turnover |
| Traders on Udyam | Covered for priority sector lending, but outside the 45-day buyer-payment protection |
| GST threshold | Rs 40 lakh for goods and Rs 20 lakh for services, half that in special category states |
| Compulsory GST | Inter-state supply of goods, whatever the turnover |
| PAN | No separate firm PAN. Your personal PAN is the firm PAN |
| Presumptive taxation | Section 58, Income-tax Act 2025, from Tax Year 2026-27. Was 44AD, 44ADA and 44AE |
| Presumptive rates | 8 per cent of turnover, 6 per cent on digital receipts, 50 per cent for specified professionals. Unchanged |
| Advance tax, presumptive | A single instalment by 15 March |
| Package | Fee | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | Rs 499 | Udyam, trade name check and the document plan |
| Business | Rs 2,499 | Plus GST, Shop Act or professional tax, and the current account pack |
| Complete | Rs 6,999 | Plus books, two quarters of GST returns and your first ITR |
| Trademark application | From Rs 3,999 plus government fee | The only way to actually own the trade name |
| Conversion to Pvt Ltd or LLP | Quoted separately | When the structure is outgrown |
Udyam registration and GST registration carry no government fee at all. A Shop and Establishment registration, professional tax enrolment and any sector licence carry state charges paid at actuals, and a trademark application carries a government fee per class. We tell you which parts are free before you pay us for anything.
Every price above is a professional fee, excluding GST and government charges. 50% on delivery.
All fees and charges listed are indicative only and do not constitute a binding offer. Final amounts may vary depending on the volume of work and the complexity involved.
Yes. We are at 129A Bangur Avenue, Block A, near Reliance Smart, Kolkata 700055. For a proprietorship setup an hour in the office usually settles everything, particularly where there are existing or lapsed registrations to make sense of. Elsewhere in India we run the same process over a scheduled call with a named CA.
With an inventory of what exists before applying for anything new. Trade licences, professional tax enrolments and GST registrations in a predecessor's name cannot simply be carried over, and applying afresh while old registrations sit open creates its own problems. The order matters: establish what is live, transfer or surrender what should not be, then register what is genuinely missing. This is the commonest piece of work we do for Kolkata proprietors and it is not a form-filling exercise.
No, they are separate things under separate laws. The trade licence is a municipal permission to carry on a trade at a location, issued by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The Shops and Establishments registration under the West Bengal Act of 1963 concerns premises and employment conditions. Depending on your activity you may need one, the other or both, and either can serve as a government-issued document in your firm's name for the bank.
Tell us what you need and a real CA calls you back, with no scripts and no transfers. Call 72783 76654. Mon - Sat, 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM IST.
Reviewed by the CA and CS Team, CorporateWalla · Last updated 17 August 2026 · · Sources: Udyam Registration portal, GST portal, Income Tax Department
Canonical: https://corporatewalla.com/services/sole-proprietorship-registration/kolkata
