Delhi government asked to extend shopping hours

NEW DELHI: PHDCCI has urged the Government of Delhi to allow the shops and shopping malls to remain open on all seven days and up to 10.00 pm.
In a representation to the chief minister, the chamber has said that opening of the shops on all seven days will lead to generation of additional income, creation of additional jobs, higher tax collection for the State and will be convenient to shoppers.
Highlighting the problems of traders in Delhi, PHDCCI has pointed out that shopping malls in NCR Region are operating all seven days and upto late hours in evenings leading to a shift of customers from away from Delhi to places like Gurgaon and Noida.
Consequently, Delhi commercial centres are loosing business and the Government is loosing revenue.
Presently, the Delhi Shops & Establishments Act imposes restrictions on the closing and opening hours of shops in the NCT of Delhi.

PHDCCI has, however, pointed out that Section 4 of the Act empowers the state government to exempt any shop or establishment or any class of shop or establishment from operation of any provision of the Act.
In the exercise of the above power, the state government has been granting exemption to individual shops on case to case basis particularly regarding opening & closing hours and seven days operation, with a condition regarding the working hours of the employees, the rest interval, working in shifts and weekly off-day by rotation.
PHDCCI has recommended that instead of granting exemption to employers of individual shops from the operation of the provisions of opening & closing hours and 7 days work, general exemption be granted to all the Shops in Delhi from these provisions subject to their adhering to the conditions of the labour laws.
This will help Delhi retain its place as the prime shopping destination in NCR region.
Most of the countries allow the Shopping Malls to remain open seven days a week to cater to the requirements of different customers.
Developed markets like Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. also merely regulate employment practices, which is the underlining objective of the legislation.
As has been done by the Government of NCT of Delhi to alleviate the difficulties faced by IT enabled services by issuing a Notification exempting the establishments from the provisions of Section 11, Section 14, Section 15 and Section 16 of Delhi Shops & Establishments Act, a similar notification is required to be issued to remove the difficulties/ constraints being faced by the Shopkeepers in the NCT of Delhi, PHDCCI has recommended.