UP may defer land dues collection as builders hit hard by Covid-19 lockdown

The Uttar Pradesh government may defer the instalments of housing land dues to Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway industrial development authorities, following

The Uttar Pradesh government may defer the instalments of housing land dues to Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway industrial development authorities, following requests by builders, as the Covid-19 pandemic has shut down construction and drastically affected the real estate sector.

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The state government said that it will address the economic crisis being faced by the real estate sector after the national real estate development council (Naredco) demanded a relief package and submitted a demand letter to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary, RK Tiwari.

“We have received a letter from builders’ body, Naredco. They are demanding the state government’s attention on issues, which are being witnessed by developers amid the nationwide lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic. Our infrastructure and industrial department that deals with the real estate sector will look into their demands and take action on the basis of merits and demerits of the issues. The government will take appropriate action as per law,” said RK Tiwari Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary speaking with Hindustan Times.

Tiwari said, “Nadredco’s Uttar Pradesh president has spoken with me on the issues faced by builders. We have asked the concerned department to look into the matter so that an appropriate decision can be taken.”

The state’s industrial bodies, Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway industrial development authorities, need to recover at least ₹35,000 crore land dues from the builders. The builders are of the view that as the construction is shut in the view of Covid-19 pandemic, they will not be able to repay the installments of land dues.

“We have requested the UP government that they should postpone the repayment of land dues for one year and reduce the compounding interest on land dues because we cannot pay our installments amid fund’s liquidity crisis after Covid 19 pandemic forced us to shut all operations. Also, we have requested the government to extend the time for two years, in which many of the builders were supposed to repay financial dues. Another important issue is that the government had earlier fixed June 2021 date to deliver flats and claim some relief on financial dues. Now we have demanded that this flat delivery date should be extended to June, 2023 because construction, which is shut down, will not be restarting any time soon,” said RK Arora, president of Uttar Pradesh chapter of Naredco.

Naredco also demanded that many builders, whose projects were disrupted due to a National Green Tribunal order in 2013, are yet to get financial relief package. “We have requested from the government to look into many such issues because only government support can help revive this sector,” said Arora.