We’ll tell you everything about the Shop and Establishment Act license in Punjab in Today’s post on VakilSearch. 

Once you start a business, you have to register your business under the Shop & Establishment Act via the Department of Labor of the State Government. Those inscriptions are now online. You will go to a state-related website and fill out a general shop registration form and add the necessary information and documentation to do so. 

A complete guide to Punjab’s Shop and Establishment Act is as follows:

1. What is the Shop and Establishment Act?

2. Who needs to register under the Shop and Establishment Act?

3. Documents required for Shop and Establishment registration

4. Procedure for registering under the Shop and Establishment Act

5. Registration fees

6. Inspection of registers by the inspector and calling for information

7. Benefits of getting Shop and Establishment Act license

What is the Shop and Establishment Act?

The Punjab Shops And Commercial Establishments Act, 1958 provides for the regulation of conditions of work and employment in Shops and commercial establishments. Additionally,  it extends to the whole of the State of Punjab. 

‘Shop’ means any premises where any company or operation is carried on or where facilities are offered to customers, including offices, stores, godowns or warehouses, whether at the same premises or otherwise, used in connection with such company or trade.

Commercial establishment” means any premises wherein any business, trade or profession is carried on for-profit and includes journalistic or printing establishment and premises in which business of banking, insurance, stocks and shares, brokerage and produce exchange is carried on or which is used as, restaurant, boarding or eating house, theatre, cinema or another place of public entertainment or any other place which the Government may declare, by notification in the Official Gazette, to be a commercial establishment of this Act;

Who needs to register under the Shop and Establishment Act?

Each employer must submit a registration application for his/her shop or for any commercial establishment within 30 days of the start of their new business. This act is one of the mandatory provisions of all the out there businesses that operate from any establishment or shop. 

All the shops, the hotel, any food house, local restaurants, city theatres, any place for public entertainment and any other commercial establishment, etc., are regulated by this act and thus include a Shop and Establishment registration following the law.

Documents required for Shop and Establishment registration

Please keep the following scanned documents ready with you for online registration

•  Proof of Shop/Commercial Establishment
•  Photo of Front of Shop/Commercial Establishment
•  Photo of Interior of Shop/Commercial Establishment
•  Identity Proof of Owner
•  Scanned copy of Signature of applicant

register for shop and establishment act

Other Documents

If you have any necessary document with more than one page, please create a PDF file and upload in other documents. 

For example

In the case of a registered company, attach three documents:

• Power of Attorney
• Memorandum of Company
• List of Directors of Company

In Case of Shop

• Rent deed of Shop

Procedure for registering under the Shop and Establishment Act

• Open your web browser and go to the web portal. If applicants are new, please refer to the New User Registration manual for applicants otherwise (with username and password provided) either by clicking on the LOGIN button on the login page.

1. Select the desired license from the list by checking the checkbox.
2. Select the Jurisdiction Area carefully by reading the full details for filling as shown in the screenshot below and then Click on Start filling Application.
3. In the next step, please fill Form-B, for Shop and Commercial. Please note that at the end of the form, the following buttons are there: 

i) Next – By pressing this button, the applicant can save entered information into the e-labor web portal and the summary page will show.

ii) Previous – By pressing this button, the user goes back to the previous page where licenses are present.

• Click on Next and fill Form F. Please note that at the end of the form, following buttons are there: 

i) Next – By pressing this button, the applicant can save entered information into the e-labor web portal, and Form A will show if the owner has employees otherwise Upload Document Form will show. 

ii) Previous – By pressing this button, the user goes back to the previous page i.e. Form B.

•  In Upload Documents, the owner has to upload all the necessary documents for registering Shop and Commercial. 
• Additionally, by clicking on Lock & Submit your application for Licence will be locked and no changes can be made, and by clicking on Edit you will be redirected to edit the application for any change.
• Moreover, after Locking your application will be given and will be shown as in the screenshot below:

Registration fees

No fee is chargeable to get the shops/commercial establishments for registration.

Inspection of registers by the inspector and calling for information

• It shall be the responsibility of each employer of an establishment to make all accounts or other records needed to be held for this Act available for review by such officers as may be prescribed; and to give such officer any other details in connection with it as may be appropriate. 
• Whoever contravenes the provisions of subparagraph (1) or deliberately obstructs the inspecting authority in the exercise of its powers under this Act, or conceals or prevents any employee in the establishment from appearing before or being examined by the authority, shall be liable for a fine of no less than twenty-five rupees and two hundred rupees.

Benefits of getting Shop and Establishment Act license

Certainly, the certificate obtained under the Shop and Establishment Act helps employers much in getting: 

• Open the bank account. 
• Further, in quickly getting the registration of sales tax and service tax. 
• Distribution of tenders with the Departments of State. 
• Additionally, to obtain the legal status v. Making the creditors/suppliers and other stakeholders trust that the company is properly that has registration with the authority and not the fake one. 
• Allows Banks and other financial institutions to receive loans easily based on certificates obtained.