Every licence a restaurant needs in India

1Which licences does a restaurant need? All 12 in one table

Five apply to almost every restaurant, café and cloud kitchen. The other seven switch on depending on what you serve, play, display and install, and on where you are.

2The five almost every restaurant needs

In filing order:

1. FSSAI. The food licence every other approval assumes, applied for on FoSCoS (foscos.fssai.gov.in). Since 1 Apr 2026 the tier follows new turnover lines: registration up to ₹1.5 crore a year, a state licence above that up to ₹50 crore, and a central licence above ₹50 crore. So a restaurant turning over between ₹12 lakh and ₹1.5 crore, which needed a state licence before, now needs only registration. Under the 2026 amendment, FSSAI registrations and licences no longer need renewing: they stay valid unless suspended, cancelled or surrendered. The yearly fee is still payable, and an unpaid fee suspends the licence. A licence issued under the old rules moves to the new footing on FoSCoS through a declaration by the business; until yours shows as moved, treat the date printed on it as live. Since 1 Oct 2021 the 14-digit FSSAI number has also had to appear on your bills. The FSSAI guide walks through the application.
2. The municipal trade or health licence. Your city’s permission to run a food business at that address. It can involve an inspection and a zoning check, and it is often the approval that sets the opening date. File it the week you sign the lease, not when the fit-out ends.
3. Shops and Establishments registration. The state labour registration that covers employing staff, working hours and leave. It is mostly online, cheap, and easy to forget, and banks often ask for it before they open a current account.
4. Fire NOC. Required above seating and area thresholds that each state sets, and enforced hard for basements, rooftops and kitchens with an LPG bank. The expensive mistake is retrofitting. Give your architect the fire-code brief before the kitchen layout is frozen; moving an exit after civil work costs real money.
5. GST registration. Compulsory once turnover crosses ₹20 lakh in a year (₹10 lakh in the special-category states). Most standalone restaurants charge 5% GST without input tax credit; the GST guide covers the exceptions, and the GST calculator shows what the tax does to a bill. If you plan to sell through delivery apps while below the threshold, settle with your CA whether you must register. Since 1 Jan 2022 the apps have paid the GST on food ordered through them, and the registration rules for kitchens that sell only through the apps are read in more than one way.

3Which of the other seven apply to you?

Each is a yes or a no for your concept, and takes about a minute to decide.

Liquor licence. Serving alcohol means your state’s excise department, and every state runs its own classes, quotas and fees. Put it on a budget line of its own: it is usually the largest licence cost by a wide margin, and it takes months.

Music licences. Playing recorded music in a commercial space needs licences from the rights holders or the bodies that licence on their behalf; PPL and IPRS are the two names owners meet most. Tariffs scale with seating and city. Licensing bodies do send legal notices, and the licence costs less than answering one.

Signage licence. The city treats the board outside as advertising and charges by size and location. Get permission before the board goes up; several cities remove or fine boards without one.

Lift and boiler certificates. A lift needs a licence from the state electrical inspectorate; steam boilers and some pressure equipment need certification from the boilers department. They apply only if you have the equipment.

Pollution consent. Larger kitchens may need consent to establish (CTE) and consent to operate (CTO) from the state pollution control board, covering effluent, smoke and waste. Small cafés usually fall below the thresholds. Banquet kitchens and anything with heavy exhaust should check the board’s category lists early, because this consent can take longer than the trade licence.

Legal metrology. Only if you sell packaged goods with a declared weight: boxed sweets, bottled pickle, packaged snacks at the counter. Table service alone does not need it.

City eating-house licence. Some cities have also licensed eating houses through the police or the local body. Delhi scrapped its police eating-house licence by a notification of 19 Jun 2025 and moved that licensing to the local bodies. Ask your city corporation whether an eating-house licence applies to your premises.

4How do the rules change city by city?

The list is national; the issuers and the slow steps are local.

• Delhi. The police eating-house licence went in Jun 2025, with that licensing moved to the MCD, the NDMC or the Cantonment Board. In Jul 2025 the government also moved to drop the MCD health trade licence for eateries, and the civic bodies pushed back, so confirm with your local body what your address needs before you file. More on the Delhi page.
• Mumbai. The BMC issues the health licence for an eating house, and more than one BMC department may inspect a food premises. Ask whether a police eating-house licence also applies to yours. See the Mumbai page.
• Bengaluru. The Greater Bengaluru Authority replaced the BBMP in 2025, and trade licences now come from the city corporation for your area. See the Bengaluru page.
• Hyderabad. Since 11 Feb 2026 the city has had three corporations: GHMC, Cyberabad and Malkajgiri. Your trade licence comes from the one your address falls in. See the Hyderabad page.
• Pune. The PMC issues the trade licence, with its own fee schedule and inspections. See the Pune page.
• Chennai. The Greater Chennai Corporation issues trade licences through its zonal offices, and Tamil Nadu runs its own state-level registrations. See the Chennai page.

Whatever the city, the method is the same: name the local issuer for every licence that applies to you, file everything that can be filed in week one, and chase all of it in parallel.

5Which licences still expire?

Getting licensed is a project; staying licensed is a calendar.

• FSSAI. No renewal under the 2026 rules, but the fee is due every year, and an unpaid fee suspends the licence. FoSCoS lets you pay for several years at once.
• Yearly, on your own dates. Liquor, music and signage licences, each on its own cycle.
• Yearly, on the government’s dates. Many trade licences run with the financial year, so your first “year” may be short. Check the cycle when the licence is issued, not when it lapses.
• Periodic. The fire NOC, pollution consent, and lift and boiler inspections recur on state schedules. Diarise each date the day the certificate arrives.
• Never renewed, never finished. GST registration does not expire, but returns are due every month or quarter, and silence draws penalties.

A missed renewal usually costs more than the original fee: late fees, a re-inspection, and in the worst case a lapsed licence during a surprise check. The legal particulars on the bills themselves are where software helps. CountStand prints your FSSAI number on every bill and will not print a bill without it, splits CGST and SGST to the paisa, and gives you the month’s GSTR-1 as one file (GSTR1_092026.json for September 2026). See it in a demo.

6What happens if you skip one?

The consequences, worst first:

• FSSAI. Running a food business that needs a licence without one is an offence under section 63 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006: up to six months in prison and a fine of up to ₹5 lakh. A business that needs only registration and skips it is in breach too. Delivery apps will not list you without an FSSAI number either.
• Fire NOC. Beyond fines, a missing or invalid NOC turns an accident into personal legal exposure and can complicate an insurance claim. Cities have run sealing drives after major fires, and a missing NOC is the easiest thing for an inspector to find.
• Trade licence. Corporations can fine and, in the end, seal the premises. Enforcement is occasional until, suddenly, it is not.
• GST. Penalties and interest build quietly once you were required to register and did not.
• Liquor. Serving without an excise licence is a criminal matter, not a compliance slip.
• Music, signage, legal metrology. Fines and legal notices, each costing more than the licence would have.

7The week-one checklist

Run the licence project the way you run the fit-out: in parallel, with names and dates.

The week you sign the lease:

• File FSSAI on FoSCoS: registration up to ₹1.5 crore turnover, a state licence above it
• File the municipal trade or health licence
• Apply for the fire NOC, and brief your architect on the fire code the same day
• File Shops and Establishments with the state labour department

Within the first month:

• GST registration, if you will cross the threshold or your CA advises it
• Walk the other seven against your concept: liquor, music, signage, lifts and boilers, pollution consent, legal metrology, a city eating-house licence
• Start the liquor application now if it applies; it is the longest wait on the list
• Open the current account, with the Shops and Establishments certificate in hand

Before the doors open:

• Music licences before the first playlist; signage permission before the board goes up
• Every renewal and inspection date in the diary
• Copies of every certificate, on paper and scanned, where a manager can show them during an inspection

Licence costs and timelines belong in the plan before you sign anything. The restaurant business plan guide has a section for them, and the guide to opening a restaurant shows where each filing falls in the months before you open.

8Questions owners ask