Shop and Establishment Registration in Odisha (2026): The 20-Employee Rule, Odia Signboards, Fees and Working Hours

If you run a shop, showroom, office, clinic, restaurant, coaching centre or service business in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Rourkela, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Puri or Balasore, shop and establishment registration is governed by the Odisha Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1956. An amendment that took effect in November 2025 rewrote it: only establishments with twenty or more employees now register, every establishment must display an Odia signboard, the working day is longer, and shops may open round the clock. This guide is for owners, small employers and their accountants. It explains who registers, what it costs on the government portal, the hours and holiday rules, night work for women, and ends with a worked example for a Bhubaneswar business.

Quick answer

Since 8 November 2025, only establishments employing 20 or more employees must register with the Labour Department, within six months of starting business; a certificate not issued within seven working days is deemed granted. Smaller establishments do not register, but every establishment must display its name in Odia on a signboard. The portal fee for 20 or more workers is ₹1,012.50.

• 20+ employees: up to 10 hours a day, 12 hours with overtime, overtime capped at 144 hours a quarter

• Shops may open 24x7 and 365 days with a weekly holiday for each employee

• Women at night with written consent and safety conditions

• Fines of ₹1,000 to ₹5,000 for a first offence

What the Odisha shop act covers

The Odisha Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1956 (Odisha Act 30 of 1956) and the Odisha Shops and Commercial Establishments Rules, 1958 regulate shops and commercial establishments, including offices, banks, insurers, restaurants, hotels, theatres and places of public amusement, in the municipal corporation, municipality and notified area council areas where the Act applies. The Labour & ESI Department administers it through District Labour Officers and Assistant Labour Officers, who act as Inspectors.

The Act deals with registration, signboards, hours of work, rest intervals, opening hours, weekly holidays, leave, wages and the employment of adolescents and women. It was amended in 2018, when fines were raised and an Odia signboard requirement introduced, and again, far more substantially, in 2025.

Shop registration is a labour-law registration. It is separate from the municipal trade licence that the Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and other municipal bodies issue, and from GST, Udyam and professional tax registration. Banks often ask for it; since November 2025 a small establishment can show its trade licence, GST or Udyam certificate instead.

The 2025 amendment: what changed

The Governor first made the changes by the Odisha Shops and Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025 (Odisha Ordinance 03 of 2025). The Assembly passed the replacing Bill on 3 December 2025 by voice vote after the opposition walked out, the Governor assented on 9 January 2026, and the Act, Odisha Act 01 of 2026, was published on 16 January 2026. It is deemed to have come into force on 8 November 2025, repeals the ordinance and saves everything done under it.

A new threshold. New section 1(2-a) says the Act, except section 4A, applies to establishments employing twenty or more employees. Before the amendment, any shop or establishment in a covered area engaging one or more employees had to register within thirty days.

Registration for 20 or more. The substituted section 4 requires the employer of every establishment employing twenty or more employees to apply for registration within six months of starting business, in the form and with the fee prescribed. The Inspector must register the establishment and issue the certificate within seven working days; if he does not, the certificate is deemed granted.

Odia signboards for everyone. New section 4A requires the name of every establishment, irrespective of the number of employees, to be displayed on a signboard in front of it, prominently in Odia, in addition to any other language. This is the one provision that binds small shops.

Hours, 24x7 and women. The amendment lengthened the working day, raised the overtime cap, allowed establishments to open round the clock all year, barred adolescents from night work and empowered the State to allow women to work at night by notification. Each is covered below.

No intimation below 20. Unlike Haryana and Punjab, which require smaller establishments to file an online intimation, Odisha's amendment simply takes them out of the Act apart from the signboard rule. There is nothing to file.

Odisha shop act at a glance (2026)

20+

Employees that need registration

below 20: Odia signboard only

six months

To apply

from starting business

seven working days

Deemed grant

if the Inspector does not act

144 hours a quarter

Overtime cap

was 50 hours

Who counts towards the 20

The threshold counts employees. The amendment does not define a new way of counting them, so take a cautious view and count permanent staff, probationers, part-timers, paid trainees and workers supplied by a contractor for security, housekeeping or delivery at the premises. If agency staff take you to twenty or more, you need to register.

Seasonal peaks matter. A Bhubaneswar sweet shop with sixteen staff that adds six helpers for Durga Puja and Rath Yatra crosses the line for those weeks. The Act does not provide a separate rule for temporary crossings, so the safe course is to register when your headcount reaches twenty and keep the certificate, updating particulars through the portal as they change.

Each separate premises is normally its own establishment, so two outlets with twelve employees each would usually both fall below the threshold. If staff move between outlets or the head office employs most of them, confirm the count with the District Labour Officer.

Fees and the online process on PAReSHRAM

The Labour & ESI Department runs shop registration on its PAReSHRAM portal, which routes each application to the District Labour Officer or Assistant Labour Officer for the area. The portal publishes a fee table that applies from January 2025 to December 2029.

Registration fee on PAReSHRAM (January 2025 to December 2029)

Number of workers	Fee
1 to 9	₹253.12
10 to 19	₹675
20 or more	₹1,012.50
Amendment of certificate	₹20 plus any difference in slab
Ownership change	50% of the fee paid for the certificate

1 to 9

Fee

₹253.12

10 to 19

Fee

₹675

20 or more

Fee

₹1,012.50

Amendment of certificate

Fee

₹20 plus any difference in slab

Ownership change

Fee

50% of the fee paid for the certificate

Two cautions. First, the portal's instructions still describe registration within thirty days for establishments with one or more employee, wording written before the November 2025 amendment. The Act now controls: registration is compulsory only at twenty or more employees, within six months, and the lower slabs are relevant only if a smaller establishment chooses to register. Second, the page says a fee "50% in excess of the fees payable for registration" is payable after every gap of five years. Read with the fee schedule, which is revised for five-year periods, this appears to be a surcharge for applications made long after the business started rather than a renewal fee; confirm with the District Labour Officer if it seems to apply to you.

Shop registration in Odisha, step by step

1. 1

   Count your employees

   Include contract, part-time and agency staff at the premises. Twenty or more: register. Fewer: just put up an Odia signboard.

2. 2

   Register on PAReSHRAM

   Create an account on the Labour & ESI Department's PAReSHRAM portal and open the Odisha Shops & Commercial Establishments Act registration service.

   Open PAReSHRAM shop registration
3. 3

   Fill in the form and upload documents

   An identification document for the premises (rent agreement, electricity bill or trade licence), a photograph of the Odia signboard and the applicant's signature, in PNG, JPG or PDF up to 4 MB each.

4. 4

   Pay the fee

   After the form is saved, the portal calculates the fee by the number of workers and you pay online.

5. 5

   Get the certificate

   The Inspector must issue it within seven working days of the application, failing which it is deemed granted. Keep the application acknowledgement.

Documents to keep ready

• Rent agreement, electricity bill or trade licence for the premises
• A clear photograph of the shop's Odia signboard
• Scanned signature of the applicant
• PAN and identity proof of the proprietor, partners or directors
• A list of employees, including contract staff, with designation and date of joining
• For an ownership change later: PAN or Aadhaar of the new owner and the new owner's signature

Amending the certificate

To change the owner, address or name, apply for amendment on the portal with the supporting document: ID proof of the new owner, a new rent agreement or electricity bill, or a photograph of the new Odia signboard. The amendment fee is ₹20, plus the difference if the number of employees has gone into a higher slab and half the original fee for an ownership change. The department grants amendments within 15 working days and may raise a query within seven days, which pauses the clock.

Working hours, overtime and 24x7 opening

For establishments with twenty or more employees, the amendment changed several limits. Section 7(1) now allows up to 10 hours of work a day, up from nine, and a new proviso caps total hours including overtime at 12 hours in any day. The overtime ceiling in the second proviso rose from fifty to one hundred and forty-four hours, a limit press reports of the Assembly debate describe as applying over three months. Section 8 now ties overtime wages to work beyond ten hours a day, and the weekly limit of 48 hours was kept. Section 9 now allows up to six hours of continuous work before a rest interval of at least half an hour, up from five.

Overtime is paid at twice the normal rate of wages, which is also the Code on Wages rule in force since 21 November 2025.

24x7 and 365 days. The substituted section 11 lets every establishment remain open round the clock if each employee gets overtime wages and a weekly holiday, and has access to washrooms, drinking water, seating and other basic amenities. The substituted section 12 lets establishments open on all 365 days, provided every employee gets a weekly holiday of at least twenty-four consecutive hours. A denied weekly holiday must be compensated with leave within three months, wages cannot be cut for the holiday, and daily-wage employees who have worked six continuous days are paid for it.

What about establishments under 20? Read literally, section 1(2-a) applies only section 4A to them, so the Act's hours, holiday and leave provisions no longer bind them. Their staff are still protected by the Code on Wages, which covers minimum wages, timely payment and overtime for every employer, and by the Labour Codes at their own thresholds. Check pay against the Odisha minimum wages.

Women at night and adolescents

The substituted section 23 bars any adolescent from working at night in any establishment. New section 23A lets the State, by notification, allow women to work at night with their written consent on conditions of safety, security and dignity.

The State had already acted before the amendment. Notification No. 6956 of 31 July 2025 exempts all shops and commercial establishments from the old night-work bar on these conditions:

• written consent of each woman who works at night;
• at least three women on the shift, which may include a woman employer on site;
• pick-up and drop at or near home in vehicles with GPS tracking, with bio-data and police verification of every driver;
• toilets and drinking water near the workplace, with CCTV and proper lighting on the way to them;
• the establishment's numbers, the women's helpline 181 and the Labour & ESI helpline 18003456703 displayed at the premises and in vehicles;
• at least eight consecutive hours' rest when a woman's duty changes between day and night shifts;
• compliance with the POSH Act;
• an online self-certification by the employer on the department's portal.

Breaching the conditions attracts the penalty under section 35.

OSH Code registration

The OSH Code, in force since 21 November 2025, requires establishments with 10 or more workers to register under its section 3 within 60 days of the Code applying. An Odisha shop with twelve employees is therefore outside the Shops Act's registration duty but inside the OSH Code's.

The Labour & ESI Department published draft Odisha Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Rules on 16 February 2026, proposing electronic registration with digital certificates. We could not confirm, as of October 2026, that the rules have been finalised or that an OSH registration service for shops is live, and we found no Odisha notification exempting OSH registrants from Shops Act registration. Until then, follow the Shops Act and watch PAReSHRAM for the OSH service.

Worked example: a Bhubaneswar electronics showroom

Patnaik Electronics opens in Saheed Nagar, Bhubaneswar on 1 December with seventeen sales and service staff, two agency security guards and two delivery helpers from a logistics contractor, twenty-one employees in all.

Registration. Counting the agency and contractor staff, the showroom has twenty-one employees, so section 4 applies. The owner applies on PAReSHRAM well before the six-month deadline of 1 June, uploading the rent agreement, a photograph of the bilingual signboard with the Odia name prominent, and her signature, and pays ₹1,012.50. If the certificate has not issued within seven working days, it is deemed granted.

Hours and overtime. The showroom opens 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. all week, with staggered weekly offs. During the festive sale a technician works 54 hours in a week. On Odisha's unskilled minimum of ₹12,428 a month (₹478 a day), an eight-hour base gives about ₹60 an hour; six overtime hours at twice the rate cost about ₹717, and count towards the 144 hours a quarter ceiling. Calculate on actual pay where it is higher.

Other compliance. She also needs EPF registration at 20 or more employees, ESIC for staff within the wage ceiling, an Internal Committee under the POSH Act at 10 or more employees, and the municipal trade licence.

Penalties

Section 35, as substituted in 2018, punishes any contravention of the Act, on conviction, with a fine of ₹1,000 to ₹5,000 for a first offence and ₹2,000 to ₹25,000 for a second or later offence. The 2025 amendment did not change these amounts. The same section is the penalty for breaching the women-at-night conditions, and a missing Odia signboard is a contravention whatever the size of the shop.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

Following the portal's old 30-day wording. Fix: register if you have twenty or more employees, within six months; smaller establishments need not register.

Forgetting the signboard. Section 4A applies to every establishment. Fix: put up a board with the name prominently in Odia.

Counting only payroll staff. Fix: include agency guards, cleaners and contractor staff in the headcount.

Treating 24x7 as no days off. Fix: give every employee 24 consecutive hours off each week and compensatory leave within three months if a holiday is missed.

Rostering women at night without the conditions. Fix: get written consent, arrange GPS-tracked transport and file the self-certification before the first night shift.

Official links

• PAReSHRAM — shop registration and amendmentFees, documents, timelines
• Odisha Act 01 of 2026 — 2025 amendment (PDF)Gazette text
• Women at night — notification No. 6956 (PDF)Conditions and self-certification

What to do next

Put up an Odia signboard first; every establishment needs one. Then count everyone who works at your premises. At twenty or more, register on PAReSHRAM within six months of starting, keep the certificate current, give each employee a weekly holiday and record hours and overtime. Below twenty, there is no registration, but minimum wages and the Labour Codes still apply. Check pay against the Odisha minimum wages, itemise overtime with our salary slip generator, and work out the double rate with the hourly rate calculator. If you also trade across the border, see the West Bengal shop act guide.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice — confirm on the official source or with a professional.

Frequently asked questions

Is shop and establishment registration mandatory in Odisha?

Only for establishments employing 20 or more employees. The Odisha Shops and Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Act, 2025, deemed in force from 8 November 2025, applies the Act, except the Odia signboard rule in section 4A, only to them. They must apply within six months of starting business. Smaller establishments do not register, but must still display an Odia signboard.

What is the shop registration fee in Odisha?

The Labour Department's PAReSHRAM portal lists fees applicable from January 2025 to December 2029: ₹253.12 for 1 to 9 workers, ₹675 for 10 to 19 and ₹1,012.50 for 20 or more. Since November 2025 only the last slab applies to compulsory registrations. An amendment costs ₹20.

How long does Odisha take to issue a shop registration certificate?

Under the substituted section 4(3), the Inspector must register the establishment and issue the certificate within seven working days of receiving the application. If he does not, the certificate is deemed to have been granted. Amendments of a certificate are granted within 15 working days, with any query raised within seven days.

What are the working hours for shops in Odisha now?

For establishments with 20 or more employees, up to 10 hours a day, with no more than 12 hours in a day including overtime, a half-hour rest after six hours of continuous work, and overtime capped at 144 hours a quarter. Overtime is paid at twice the normal rate.

Can shops in Odisha open 24x7?

Yes. The substituted sections 11 and 12 let every establishment stay open 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, provided each employee gets overtime wages, a weekly holiday of at least 24 consecutive hours, and access to washrooms, drinking water and seating. A denied weekly holiday must be compensated within three months.

Can women work night shifts in Odisha shops?

Yes, under a notification of 31 July 2025, with written consent and conditions: at least three women on the shift, GPS-tracked transport with police-verified drivers, toilets with CCTV and lighting, eight hours' rest between shift changes, POSH compliance and an online self-certification by the employer.

Sources & verification

Figures on this page were checked against the sources below when it was last reviewed on 13 October 2026. Each rate and limit is stored once with its own official source and review date, and official update channels are monitored daily so changes are picked up. How we verify

1. 1.Odisha Gazette Extraordinary No. 203, 16 January 2026 — Odisha Shops and Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Odisha Act 01 of 2026) — Law Department, Government of Odisha (via Labour & ESI Department) · accessed 13 October 2026
2. 2.PAReSHRAM — Odisha Shops & Commercial Establishments Act, 1956 and Odisha Rules 1958: registration and amendment of establishment — Labour & ESI Department, Government of Odisha · accessed 13 October 2026
3. 3.Odisha Gazette Extraordinary No. 2386, 31 July 2025 — Labour & ESI Department notification No. 6956 (women employees at night) — Labour & ESI Department, Government of Odisha · accessed 13 October 2026
4. 4.Odisha Shops and Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Act, 2018 — LegitQuest (Act text) · accessed 13 October 2026
5. 5.Odisha Shops and Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Act, 2025 — TeamLease RegTech · accessed 13 October 2026
6. 6.Odisha Assembly passes Shops and Commercial Establishments Amendment Bill amid opposition outcry — Pragativadi · accessed 13 October 2026
7. 7.Draft Odisha Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Rules, 2026 — TeamLease RegTech · accessed 13 October 2026