Amrapali homebuyers to pay extra to meet shortfall?
(This story originally appeared in
on Jul 12, 2022)NEW DELHI: Facing a fund crunch in completing the construction of all housing projects of Amrapali group, the Supreme Court-appointed receiver has decided to raise funds from homebuyers to meet the shortfall and asked them to deposit an additional amount of Rs 200 per sq feet of their flats.
Noting that the cost of construction has increased substantially since initial booking of the unit was made by homebuyers a decade ago, a separate "Sinking cum Reserve Fund" has been created where the homebuyers would deposit the additional amount.
"A Sinking cum Reserve Fund shall be created to make provision of shortfall in construction cost and interest cost if any. All the home buyers across shall be asked to deposit a sum calculated @ Rs. 200/- per Sq. ft. for booked units in that fund, with the condition that such funds if not-utilised, shall be refunded back to them on overall completion of the projects. In case part utilisation of amount, proportionate amount shall be refunded to all the home buyers out of the unutilised money. This shall be applicable to the all categories of home buyers of erstwhile Amrapali Projects," says the notice which has been posted on the website managed by the receiver.
The homebuyers have opposed the receiver's decision and decided to object to it before the Supreme Court which is monitoring the entire exercise. As hearing in the case has been adjourned for Tuesday, advocate M L Lahoty, appearing for homebuyers, said that buyers had been waiting for their flats for many years and they should not be burdened. He said that the money should be recovered from erstwhile promoters and directors of the group who siphoned homebuyers money.
"This has lead to agitation and havoc among the buyers as they have already paid more than Rs 1,100 crores as per the new construction wise payment schedule out of Rs 3,400 crores total due from them. Also, total recovery as per judgment of Supreme Court was Rs. 11,000 crores, but only total amount which has been recovered is around Rs 2,900 crores of which 1,100 crores is from home buyers. Receiver has not taken action on any front on recovery from Directors, CFO, sale of properties, etc and now burdening the Home Buyers even more," he said.
"The under-value units reported in FA(forensic audit) report shall be asked to pay 15% of the undervalued amount plus prevailing taxes. However, the cases in which unit cost has been shown at extraordinary low rate (below Rs. 1500/- per sq. feet), they will be asked to equalise the gap before being asked to pay 15%.," the notice said.
This story originally appeared on: Muscle & Fitness - Author:Tax Cognition
