Parliamentary Panel Resumes RERA Dilution By Different States

On Wednesday, April 26 The Committee on Subordinate Legislation (COSL) of Lok Sabha had a meeting with the officials from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation regarding the dilution of Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) rules by various states. The focal point of this meeting was buyer’s rights, supported the strict implementation of RERA.

This over one hour continued meeting had discussion on the progress of RERA execution, scheduled on May 1, 2017, where COSL expressed the concern to the ministry officials over the dilution of RERA norms by the various states.
Before more than 10 days, COSL issued a letter to the ministry with a 32-point query; including queries related the standing of the implementation of RERA, establishment of regulatory authority and appellate tribunal by state governments, and dilution of rules by various states. COSL has raised further queries that are expected to be answered by HUPA within next few days. Feedback will be monitored by an individual committee and COSL will make its recommendation after that. COSL had also written separate letters to the Prime Minister, Union Minister of Housing, Union Minister of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation and also to the chief ministers of UP, Haryana and Gujarat to highlight such dilution of rules.,

After the act was notified on May 1, 2016, all states were asked to submit their notified final rules within 6 months, which unfortunately didn’t materialize. By far, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Odisha have notified their rules and HUPA had notified final rules for the 5 UTs by OCT 31.
A pan-India homebuyers’ organization ‘Fight for RERA’ had sought after the intrusion of COSL of both the upper and lower Houses to make certain that the final rules are framed and implemented by states within the ambit of RERA. RERA implementation is now the prime need of the country, which would finally proffer justice to the suffering homebuyers.

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RERA rolls-out Developers Speeding Up Project Completion

It seems a greater part of the country’s developers have appeared in the marathon of on hand project completion after RERA takes effect. RERA penalization clauses stirred the deliverance sector of real estate. Yet, in comparison to south a large number of property in north Kolkata is at under-construction stage. As builders are keen on taking advantage of GST roll out, as investment in under-construction properties will cost 15% excess charge to the homebuyers as per the new GST regulation.
But it seems RERA impact appears more powerful.
The current project statistics show that builders are investing in fast completion of their ongoing projects to comply with the ‘timely completion’ clause of RERA, which will be manifested from May 01, 2017 in every state and union territory all across the country. The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act was enacted in March 2016.

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According to the industry specialist RERA is not only the reason for this rush of project wrap-up. It’s observed that developing a new project abiding by all RERA regulations is much difficult than to finish the ongoing projects, specifically the ones in an advanced stage of completion. If they cap their on hand projects before RERA regime rolls out effectively, then it’ll be easier to get an occupancy certificate and they don’t require to adhere to RERA formalities as well.
Builders are advised to deliver all their projects timely with every promised amenity and all other needed touch-up final works. Once RERA comes into action countrywide buyers rights will be fully protected from the horseplay of shady developers which includes delay in deliverance, embezzlement of funds collected from buyers of one project to grubstake another one.

All the shaky roots will be removed in this course, as scrupulous builders will find it impossible keep up their business, under this strict infrastructure. This will for sure clear up investment related confusion from the buyers’ minds and provide a solid platform for ethical business of realty. However, work on under construction projects appears to be in full swing these days. This will acquire more accountability and transparency in the real estate sector.

– LNN(Liyans News Network)

It’s Time To Unit Area Implementation For KMC

Kolkata Municipal Corporation is finally all set to launch UAA (Unite Area Assessment) for resolving property tax issue. This service will be applicable for city’s every residential/commercial property owner. Earlier a proposal was passed in the KMC house to the top civic authority for implementing UAA from April 1, 2017. Other major cities of the country have already rolling out UAA process such as- Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Patna. People who want to buy property in Kolkata, will follow this regime henceforth.

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Now on under KMC website a property owner can assess his/her property tax online and decide the exact amount to be payable on https://www.kmcgov.in. (Official website of KMC). Property owners can also visit the assessment-collection department of the KMC ward offices or e-governance centers of corporation located across the city. The Mayor of Kolkata Mr. Shovan Chattopadhyay has already announced that through UAA the KMC assessment department will send tax bills to the assesses under the current property valuation. “Property owners will be allowed to pay their outstanding bills under the current method of valuation (rental base). In the meantime, the property tax payer concerned can enroll for the UAA system. We will adjust the bills after the switch over is complete,” Chatterjee said. Also he warned, any deviation from the declared statement will attract penalty.”

He also assured that the new UAA system wouldn’t prove to be a burden on property owners as it would never exceed by 20%. Asking on the same a KMC official has said, “UAA has proved to be a scientific system of determining property tax in some Indian cities. We are set to experiment with this new system. At the same time we have decided to put a 20% cap on either increase or decrease in the tax rate from the present annual rent based valuation system.”
Under the new system the entire city will be divided into 6 regions based on the location and civic amenities being relished by property owners. According to the civic body annual property tax under UAA is calculated on the basis of this formula-

Annual Tax Payable Rs.= Category wise unit area value(Rs/ Sq Ft)×Multiple factors×Covered space of building area/area of land (sq ft)× Tax rate (percentage).
It’s foreseen that the UAA system would be unrestricted, transparent, impartial, easy to administrator and empower the citizen by providing the opportunity of self-assessment.

_ By LNN(Liyans News Network)

Bank Credit To Builders Further More Halves In The Couple of Years: Report

PE funds have crop up as the foremost origin of funding to the builders. As per Knight Frank India’s latest report lending to realty sector (builders) by banks has more than halved in the last two years from 55% in 2014 to less than 24% in 2016.
Samantak Das, Chief Economist & National Director – Research, Knight Frank India said, “Rising non-performing assets (NPAs), higher risk provisioning and mounting losses in the real estate industry have led to significant reduction in credit offered by banks.”

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PE funds have turned up as the major begetter of funding for the real estate development sector, accounting for around 60% of the corporate funding requirement of the realty sector, just 21% has been picked up in 2010. PE funding is not confined to equity, but has mostly caught up quasi-equity type of formation.
In the year of 2010, the initial public offering (IPO) route used to be one of the well-approved modes of financing for the real estate sector, which has dematerialized in the recent years for meager standing of the financial sector of those credit supplying companies producing this very sector.
PE inflows recorded a 13% year-on-year drop last year, from $3.6 billion in 2015 to $3.1 billion in 2016. Even the number of deals has lower than 60 last year, against more than 100 deals in 2015. Still, 2016 has observed an average deal size of $56 million.

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“As the real estate market in India matures, driven by both regulatory and market forces, we expect PE capital to play an even greater role. Creation of public markets for commercial assets in the form of REITs and sale of distressed assets by banks to reduce NPAs is some of the drivers that would attract a lot of foreign capital into the Indian real estate market,” said Rajeev Bairathi, Executive Director & Head – Capital Markets, Knight Frank India.
The commercial realty sector has been taken over from the residential segment as the most chosen asset class for PE firms in 2016, as compared to 2015.The report said, “A slowing sales volume and huge amount of unsold inventory in the residential segment seems to have shifted the focus of PE players to office segment.”
In the commercial real estate segment the share of PE funding has almost doubled to 35% preceding year, from 18% in 2015 on active demand for office space, surging rental values and limited opening level. To invest in luxury residential property in Kolkata at huge discount level, grab the residential property sale in Kolkata. Foreign investors accounted for more than 70% of the entire PE investments in the Indian real estate business last year.
For PE players Mumbai gets the top preference as an investment location accounted for 57% of the total funding of 2016. Bengaluru finishes with a 20% share. The share of NCR in total PE funding has plunged stridently from 39% in 2013 to just 9% last year. Currently, Indian IT parks are attracting the chief realty investor with an average deal size of $106 million.
“Poor sales volume, huge amount of unsold inventory and stagnant prices in the residential segment of NCR have shifted PE investors interest away from this market,” the report said.

_ By LNN(Liyans News Network)

Not Real Estate Selling, GST Will Applicable On Land Leasing And Renting

Starting from July 1, leading and renting of land, renting buildings, EMI’s paid for under-construction houses will rope in under Goods and Service Tax. Yet, sale of flats and lands are spared from this enumeration, according to the new indirect tax regulation. This means, you can easily buy flats in Kolkata or purchase any land without GST intervention. Till now government has passed four bill related to GST implementation

1. Integrated GST Bill (IGST),

2. Central GST Bill (CGST),

3. Union Territory GST Bill (UTGST) and

4. The GST (Compensation to the states).

Adding on, 16 cesses and surcharges on central service tax and excise duty have been recently abolished.

Industry experts support government’s new tax regime, as they sees a major transformation to be materialized in Indian economy with the successful implementation. For real estate stakeholders, this brings a little woe as the sector has not included in GST’s effective range. The transactions which as of now are out of the purview of GST will attract the stamp duty as per the new regulation. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has already introduced this regime on March, 27 for approval before Lok Sabha.
Electricity too has been excluded from GST bounds. Hence, GST includes central excise, service tax and state VAT among other indirect duties on manufactured goods and services.
Summary of the CGST bill – Any lease, tenancy, easement, license to occupy land will be considered as supply of service. Also any lease on building used for commercial purpose including a commercial, industrial or residential unit either partly or totally is a supply service as per the CGST bill. The GST bill won’t consider sale of buildings (not under construction buildings) and sale of land as a supply of goods nor as a supply of services. Thus, GST won’t be levied in these supplies.

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Some tax experts think that it’s a temporary exemption for residential selling. Later on, alike commercial and industrial units residential selling will be counted inside the ambit of GST. Asking on the same, Deloitte Haskins Sells LLP Senior Director M S Mani said: “While service tax is applicable at present on sale of under construction apartments, it is levied on a lower value as abatement allowed. The abatement is ostensibly to take care of the value of the land involved in the construction of apartments”.
Government has also included anti- profiteering clause in the latest GST regime, which streamlines any reduction in the rate on tax on any supply of goods and services, or the benefit of input tax credit, should be passed on to consumers by way of a fair reduction in prices. Real estate industry is expectant to gain a positive impact from this successful roll out.

GST subsumes central duties – excise and service tax and local levies like VAT, entertainment tax, luxury tax. Some states such as Delhi exempt residential units from electricity duty which is applicable on commercial and industrial units.
– By LNN(Liyans News Network)