The Noida Authority on Monday started issuing notices to real estate developers for failing to pay land dues. The move follows a recent Supreme Court order, which cleared the decks for the Authority to recover their dues from builders at the interest rate decided while executing the lease deed.
Officials said that over the next 3-4 days, notices would be issued to about 75 developers, who owe the Authority over Rs 9,000 crore in total.
The apex court had on November 7 ordered developers to pay dues in keeping with the interest rate of the Authority. It had recalled its earlier order that fixed the rate at 8% for delayed payments.
The Authority, which is yet to acquire Rs 26,000 crore in dues, would have lost Rs 12,776 crore if the interest rate was capped at 8%.
Prasun Dwivedi, who is in charge of the group housing department, said, “The developers will have 15 days to pay their dues. The Authority will then issue recovery certificates to those who are yet to clear the payments. The land allotment of builders can be cancelled if there is no third-party interest. If builders do not pay up even after being issued the recovery certificates, their properties can be attached and auctioned.”
The senior official added that the Authority had been holding meetings with 4-5 builders every day and urging them to clear the dues at the earliest.
The move is likely to come as a relief for thousands of homebuyers as the Authority will start the registry of their flats once the dues are cleared by the developers. The delayed registries lead to several protests by residents on weekends.
The Authority, however, will not issue the recovery notices to developers whose cases are being heard at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and the Supreme Court. Officials said there were over 20 projects at the NCLT and their developers owed over Rs 3,000 crore to various authorities. Apart from them, projects of Unitech, Amrapali and Jaypee are being heard in the apex court.
According to an Authority report, there are around 1.7 lakh flats in 116 group housing projects in Noida. Of these, the sub-lease deeds of 60,675 flats have been done so far. During this financial year, the deeds of 2,110 flats were executed between April and October.
Of the 116 projects, 47 are ready, with 40,807 flats between them. According to the report, the occupation certificates for 98,833 flats have been issued till October.
