A division bench of the Supreme Court today stayed the Bombay High Court judgment in VAT case and passed an interim order extending the deadline for developers in Maharashtra for paying VAT by two months.
The RBI, on Tuesday, July 31, kept the repo rate or the rate at which banks borrow from RBI unchanged at 8% and also the reverse repo rate at which, the banks lend to RBI unchanged at 7%. However, it has lowered the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) to 23% from 24% earlier. The realty sector, reeling under liquidity pressure and low demand due to high interest rate, has reacted sharply over this status quo.
When the Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee proposed home buyers to withhold 1% of the sale consideration as Tax Deducted at Source (TDS), it became a free-for-all kind of football match with developers and property consultants alleging that it could encourage black money component in real estate, while tax consultants believed otherwise and pointed out that the reach of the banking sector in rural area makes it easier to detect unsavoury deals.
Acknowledging the developer community’s role in the economic growth of MMR in particular and Maharashtra in general, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan stressed that his government accords top priority to affordable housing.
Even as the cost of housing is skyrocketing in Mumbai, an ambitious proposal to create at least 500,000 houses as part of a “Homes for All” initiative between the real estate industry and the Maharashtra Government is gathering dust in the ministry.
When the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was to announce its annual monetary policy for 2012-13 on 17th April, there were widespread concerns of slowing economy, rising inflation, trade deficit of 4 per cent of GDP and drying FDI too emerging as a grace concerns
While the government is trying to regulate the developers with provisions of penalty and up to imprisonment, the developers in Maharashtra have decided expose the policy paralysis through RTI route.
Can policy paralysis lead to postponement of sales exhibition? Doesn’t sluggish market demand more pro-active sales drive? Is a completely sold out exhibition postponed because it anticipates no business in advance? Well, if MCHI-CREDAI is to be believed, they have postponed the Real Estate & Housing Finance Exhibition, PROPERTY 2012 Mega Show, scheduled to be held on 12th – 15th April, 2012, due to policy paralysis. However, it seems to be more a case of ideas paralysis.