The Sahara Group, fresh after a string of acquisitions of Marquee Hotel properties in the UK and the US, is in talks with US-based Oasis West Realty to pick up a controlling stake in Beverly Hilton Hotel, a landmark Los Angeles property that has been hosting the Golden Globe Awards.
A White Paper on black money tabled in Parliament on Monday, May 21, has named real estate among others as most vulnerable to menace of black money. Given that land is part of the top black money generators, the white paper suggested that states could consider taxing farm income to curb black money.
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.
It is a highly disappointing budget. The Finance Minister has miserably failed in highlighting the importance the role of Housing in economy, employment generation, apart from the very need of housing. The announcements on ECB for affordable housing is a minor respite but still meaningless.
CREDAI has stressed the importance of a devising a new scheme like tax holiday to generate stock under affordable housing category. It demands that all projects with tenements below 80 sq meter in Mumbai and Delhi, and 1000 sq meter in other cities, could be exempted from taxes.
Come budget and the real estate sector, like any other industry, comes out with its own wish list. Unfortunately, while other organised industry get a patient hearing through their industry bodies, the Finance minister seem to be hardly entertaining the sector representatives till recently.
In a bid to boost housing sector credit, the Indian government is contemplating to enhance the income-tax exemption for up to Rs 3 lakh paid as interest on housing loans in a year, from the existing limit of Rs 1.5 lakh.
Sahara’s defiance against the market regulator SEBI seems to have opened the can of worms for the company.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Thursday said it would probe real estate company DLF following allegations by Kimsuk Krishna Sinha that he had been duped of Rs.34 crore.
The SAT on Tuesday, September 18, upheld an order passed by SEBI against two Sahara group companies and directed them to return money raised from the public in violation of securities regulations with an interest of 15%.