House in Mumbai

In a decision expected to give renewed impetus to redevelopment schemes on civic leasehold plots, the Bombay high court recently set aside a 2008 order levying 50% premium (fee) to transfer ownership of leased property.

A division bench of Justices D K Deshmukh and K K Tated said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) cannot levy the transfer fee on leasehold properties in the absence of a statutory or contractual authority. The Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI) and Property Redevelopers’ Association (PRA) had moved the court. A detailed order is awaited.

Dinesh J Kuwadia, chairman, Happy Home, and convener of the MCHI redevelopment committee, said the court stated that as the lease agreement did not stipulate a transfer fee, the civic body cannot levy it. “This radical judgment will give a big relief to lessees and co-operative housing societies in the island city in places like Matunga, boost the redevelopment sector and give an impetus to more affordable housing stock,” Kuwadia added.

In 1993, the civic body had revised the rate of transfer fees from 5% to 7%. In 2008, the BMC revised the rates by adopting the state government’s policy of transferring a leased plot at the rate of 50% of the unearned income as per a ready-reckoner. The reason being that despite being the owner, the civic body does not get a fair share of the profit as most of it is pocketed by the lessee. With property rates rising, the lessee tends to sell prime plots to developers for redevelopment and make a profit. Since they are the land owners, BMC officials had argued about why the lessee should get rich.

The civic body owns 551 hectares in the city with 4,551 leased plots (all in the island city) for various purposes. Of these, 1,107 properties are in the process of transfer. Most of the 4,551 plots have been leased to housing societies for 999 years post the 1940s and are now sought for redevelopment.

Read More: timesofindia

MCD has decided to crack down in a novel way on big property tax defaulters who owe the civic body Rs 1201 crore.MCD to name and shame property tax defaulters rather than go through long-winded legal channels.

Rather than go through long-winded legal channels, the MCD has decided to ‘shame’ the defaulters. The defaulters owe the civic body anything between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 5 crore per property for five years between 1999 and 2004.

In city which has 30 lakh registered properties, only 9 lakh owners pay their tax on time. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has decided to crack down in a novel way on 4,600 big property tax defaulters who owe the civic body Rs 1201 crore.

The MCD will adopt a three-pronged strategy to make big defaulters pay their dues. One, the names and addresses of the defaulters will be published in prominent national dailies. Two, a list of the defaulters will be pasted outside the MCD’s 12 zonal offices. And three, their names will also be put up on the corporation’s website.

Read More :

http://www.commonfloor.com/stories/mcd-to-shame-property-tax-defaulters-2960

The politician-bureaucrat-builder nexus in Maharashtra has achieved super-specialisation in the art of grabbing public lands. This thievery has advanced so much that it has become next to routine in Maharashtra. The gullible public realises only when a scam erupts in the news media. Since public memory is short, things are soon forgotten till the next scam erupts.

The latest show on the front pages is that of former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane’s restaurant and lounge bar at Andheri, ironically named ‘The Jail’. On Thursday, the Bombay high court issued a notice to Rane (currently industries minister), and his wife Nilima on a petition alleging that the theme restaurant has been built on land meant for educational purposes. According to a public interest litigation (PIL), 1,500 square metres of land was handed over to the Sindhudurg Shikshan Prasarak Mandal trust headed by Nilima, at a nominal price, to construct a community centre.

Rane is also at the heart of another land scam in Pune relating to the transfer of a prime plot meant for the rehabilitation of mentally-ill patients.

As urbanisation intensifies, nothing – not even the 1.5 tonnes of gold embezzled by former Tunisian president Zine al-Abdine Ben Ali’s family — becomes more precious than prime plots of land. By that standard, Maharashtra’s top politicians are more cunning than Ben Ali. They don’t steal your gold, instead, they trick you by stealing prime public lands meant for schools, playgrounds, hospitals and other civic amenities.

Read More: dnaindia

Indian Railways is once again trying to market a prime plot of land at Bandra (E). It wants a private developer to finance, design, construct and operate, maintain and market a commercial complex on a 45-year lease.

But the 11-acre plot is embroiled in a dispute with the state government. Three years ago, then Mumbai suburban collector Vishwas Patil issued a stay on the auction process, as the state owned half the land. The dispute is still pending. The inquiry is on, said Mumbai suburban collector Nirmalkumar Deshmukh , who succeeded Patil . The issue was first raised a couple of years ago by then Congress legislator Janardhan Chandurkar, who claimed that the land belonged to the state government. He wanted to know how the railways were auctioning land, which did not belong to them in the first place, and that too without the permission of the state government.

The railways has been trying to exploit the plot for five years. Early this month, the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) invited bids for commercial development of the land, from the Harbour line track of Bandra station to the Western Express Highway. The railways will hold a two-stage bidding system for the developer`s selection.

In 2008, the state government had increased the floor space index (FSI) of the plot from 2 to 4 for commercial use. The notice said, “Shortlisted bidders, based on pre-qualification, will be eligible to participate in the financial bid in the second stage. They will have to quote an amount of lease premium payable either upfront or over a period of five to seven years with interest.”

The notice added, “The successful bidder will have to pay the first installment of lease premium and create a n SPV company that will execute the agreement with RLDA and implement the project.”

More News: timesofindia

The widening CBI investigations into the telecom spectrum scam, along with global jitters, took a heavy toll on the market on Friday with the BSE sensex off nearly 500 points from the day’s high to close in the red. In the process, the index also ended its five-session winning run. While the sensex closed 295 points lower at 18,211.50 points, the nifty on the NSE closed 88 points lower at 5,459. In the previous five sessions, the sensex had picked up nearly 1,050 points from its recent closing low of 17,463 on February 10.

On Friday, stocks from the Reliance ADA group crashed, along with realty firms Anant Raj Industries and DB Realty on reports that the CBI has found money trails involving them. While Reliance Communications closed 6.8% off at Rs 93, Reliance Infrastructure ended 5.6% lower at Rs 607 and Reliance Power was off 5.6% at Rs 114. Since the telecom scam was out in the open, the group has denied any wrongdoing.

The day’s session also witnessed stock of the Delhi-based real estate firm Anant Raj Industries close on the lower circuit, down 20%, at Rs 76 while Mumbai-based DB Realty shed 5.9% to Rs 129. During the day, as part of its probe into the 2G spectrum allocation scam, the CBI raided a south India-based TV firm which belongs to top DMK leaders, and is believed to have played a role in routing money from some of the companies which were allotted spectrum by former telecom minster A Raja, who also belongs to DMK. Investors on Dalal Street are now talking about the possibility of some big and influential businessmen and also politicians being arrested by the CBI during the weekend.

The day’s slide was also prompted by fresh concerns in Europe that Portugal might have to seek financial bailout. Market players were also shaken after China announced a half-a-percentage point increase in reserve ratio for banks to rein in inflation. However, since the China decision came during the closing hours, it hardly had an impact on the session, dealers said. Despite the slide, FIIs emerged net buyers at Rs 208 crore while domestic funds were net sellers at Rs 189 crore.

More News: timesofindia