DTCP urges developers in Gurugram to pay EDC dues, opt for the ‘samadhan’ scheme

No new approval will be granted to those developers who fail to pay up, officials who are familiar with the matter said on Monday

No new approval will be granted to those developers who fail to pay up, officials who are familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Gurugram, India-June 14, 2019: Workers atop a high rise building under construction in Gurugram, India, on Friday, June 14, 2019. The mercury hasn’t dropped below the 40 degrees Celsius mark since June 1, and the consistently high temperatures are unprecedented. The homeless, construction workers, manual labourers and daily wage earners are at the most risk in this weather, spending hours under the sun at a stretch. HT spoke to a few of those in the city who work sun up to sun down in the extreme heat. (Photo by Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)**To go with Tough Jobs in Summer Photo Essay**

According to the details shared by the department, the developers owe more than ₹15,000 crore as EDC/IDC dues, which they are yet to pay despite repeated notices.

The decision to issue the notices was taken on February 16, at a high-level meeting held in Chandigarh, which was chaired by the DTCP additional chief secretary.

According to the minutes of the meeting, “Any developer whose outstanding EDC/SIDC dues exceed ₹20 crore will be issued a notice to either clear the outstanding dues in two weeks of opt for ‘Samadhan se Vikas’ policy for the regularisation of their default. If they fail to do this, no further approvals in their existing projects or no new further licences shall be granted to them”.

EDC is collected from developers for building infrastructure and amenities such as electricity lines, sewage lines, water lines, and roads. Due to the delay in the payment of EDC charges, several infrastructure projects have stalled because of paucity of funds, said DTCP officials.

RS Bhath, district town planner (enforcement), said that collection of EDC was crucial for the department and the government as local and city-wide infrastructure is developed using these funds. “Money is required to build infrastructure and if it remains unpaid, then roads, water lines, sewage systems and other infrastructure work gets delayed. The ‘samadhan’ scheme is good for phased payments and the government has also announced several other measures to make payment easier,” he said.

Earlier on Friday, the Haryana government had called upon the developers to pay the pending dues and termed it as their moral responsibility.

Additional chief secretary Devender Singh, while speaking at a conclave in Gurugram last week, had asked the realtors to focus on smaller projects so that they can be completed in time and EDC can also be deposited on time.

Meanwhile, the developers said that the decision to extend the ‘Vivad se Samadhan’ scheme for six months will greatly help the real estate industry. “The decision to extend the scheme will ease pressure of payments and most developers will take advantage of the extension. The government has also announced interest waiver and mortgage of buildings in lieu of payment. This will also help many cash-strapped developers,” said Praveen Jain, president, National Real Estate Development Council (Naredco).

The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) said that the move to extend ‘Samadhan se Vikas’ policy is a welcome step and it will help the government to recover the outstanding EDC.

“We also welcome all other recent announcements made by the government of Haryana and they will boost Industry sentiments and will address the issues of all stakeholders,” said Manish Agarwal, secretary of CREDAI, Haryana.