City Hall collects over $2M from vendors registration drive

City Hall has collected over $2 million from the vendor’s registration drive which has been extended to tomorrow.

The city project which seeks to regulate vendors, commenced in late January, and registered vendors have been issued with identification cards and a certificate stating their name, their location and the commodity sold.

To date, over 800 vendors have paid the $3000 registration fee to city hall. For registration, vendors are required to produce either their national identification card or passport, their Tax Identification Number (TIN) Certificate, along with two passport-sized photographs.

In October last year, Mayor Patricia Chase-Green said the move would be in accordance with the Municipal and District Councils Act, where it states how street vendors and market stallholders must operate.

Vendors who are selling on the streets, and in front of schools, between Agricola, on the East Bank of Demerara, and Cummings Lodge on the East Coast of Demerara, have also come forward to be registered, city spokeswoman Debra Lewis said.

Lewis told Stabroek News that the registration is a part of a wider plan to organise street vending, “in a way that would facilitate a good balance between allowing vendors to make a livelihood and allowing the Council to execute its obligations to local communities.”

She went on to say that the registration would enable council officers to easily identify street vendors for proper accommodation by the Council.

“The Council plans to provide accommodation by the extension of the northern section of the Bourda Market; transformation of the new Vendors Mall on Water Street, into a four floor Multi-Shopping Mall and the conversion of the Bourda Green area into a four-storied shopping complex,” she explained.

The Council, she noted, is pleased with the co-operation it has received from the vendors.