The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) has written a letter to the finance department to extend relaxation on stamp duty till March 2022 which was announced by chief minister Ashok Gehlot in the 2021-22 Budget.
On the demand of the developers, the CM had announced to reduce stamp duty on housing units in multi-storey buildings from 6% to 4% until June 30, 2021. The benefits were provided to buyers purchasing a flat worth up to Rs 50 lakh.
Developers, however, claimed that the real estate industry failed to reap the benefit of relaxation as strict guidelines were imposed during the second wave.
Rajasthan CREDAI chairman Gopal Prasad Gupta said, “Before the industry could have recovered from the first lockdown, the second wave disturbed the earnings of buyers and benefit was not derived. The developers also faced financial setbacks. We have requested the state government to extend the relaxation to motivate the buyers,”
After the first lockdown, both consumers and real estate industry faced a setback as the stamp duty was increased to 6% from 5%. Also, with 1% registration fee and 30% other taxes, the total stamp duty had gone up to 8.8%.
This year in February the relaxations were announced, the buyers were expecting financial benefits. However, the restrictions imposed during the second wave put a spoke in real estate industry’s wheel.
“The consumers who planned buy a flat up to Rs 50 lakh were supposed to pay total 5.6% stamp duty, including other taxes till the given date. But not many could crack the deal due to second wave,” said Manoj Agarwal a real estate developer.
A senior official at UDH said, “We would recommend to accept the proposal of the developers as industry is reeling under financial crises since long and needs a boost to revive.”
The CREDAI has also demanded extension from the Rajasthan Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) for submitting quarterly progress reports (QRPS) of their registered projects.
In the recent orders, the authority mentioned that the last date for submission of QRPs for all the earlier quarters and also for the quarters ending on March 31, 2021 has been extended to June 30, 2021 without any delay processing charges or penalty.