Blaming use of black money in real estate to archaic laws, India’s largest realty firm DLF has said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s emphasis on reduction of stamp duty will help in cleansing the sector.
Terming stamp duties as a “big obstacle” in ensuring transparent transactions in real estate, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday batted for reducing such levies to check the flow of black money in the sector.
After the Convention of confederation of real estate developers’ association of India (CREDAI) where the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee urged the realty sector to be poor sensitive, it seems the affordable housing is the buzz word now. National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO), the apex body for real estate and housing sectors under the aegis of Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India, also announced that its convention is aimed at realizing the “Housing for All” call of Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh.
The question is what needs to be done. Or in other words, how could real estate consume more out of ‘Make in India’ manufacturing? The question in itself is flawed, if not in sync with the larger eco system issues. Setting up and making a manufacturing unit in India comes with its own challenges. Cheap labour alone would not give India any edge or cost arbitrage over the export items. ‘Make in India’ has to move beyond the rhetoric of nationalism and reforms have to be introduced at each and every level, ranging from lower corporate tax to labour laws and making the country a happy hunting ground for the manufacturers of the world.
It is in this backdrop that in a typical “Ravi Sinha Uncensored” tone I told a PR girl who called me for one such Press Release by one of the largest developers of Mumbai, “Listen! As a matter of principle I am not carrying any story on food distribution to construction workers. But wait! Please give my feedback to your client, “He or any other builder is not doing any charity; not worth beating its own trumpet. This is a national calamity and you are morally bound to do so. Such Press Releases only make you look really petty. You can weave this info into some other story once the dust settles and everything is normal. But glorifying humanitarian gesture at this point of time is at best Corona Tourism for Publicity which is highly deplorable.”
It was not the magic wand it was hoped to be. However, over the past two years, the Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA) has brought more sanity – and the return of consumer power – than seemed possible in such a short time. The real estate sector is still struggling with it and the Act is very much work-in-progress in many states, but RERA nevertheless hangs like a sword of Damocles over a previously unregulated industry. Eventual compliance across the board seems inevitable.
Environmentalists have raised serious concerns over the devastating consequences of climate change. Calling it irresponsible, they question how could a parking lot service area for metro trains being allowed to destroy a critical green lung.
The PVNR Expressway gives seamless connectivity to the airport on one side – travel time of 15 minutes and to the core areas of Hyderabad like Mehdipatnam and Banjara Hills, and on the other side – travel time of 20 to 30 minutes. It also lies along the Outer Ring Road (ORR) and is close to National Highway 7 that connects the city to Bangalore, Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar.
The story goes like this: builder accuses Noida Authority CEO of demanding bribery and harassing for free flat. Abhay Kumar took the moral high ground to sound like a war cry for clean system when he levied strong charges against Noida Authority incumbent CEO of continuous harassment after former declined to provide him with a free flat in his project at Sector 77, Noida.
Bottom Line: The rate cut ahead of Union Budget 2017-18…