BMC hasn’t claimed `620cr premium from builders
On one hand the BMC is planning to charge three times property tax to the buildings, which do not have occupation certificates, on the other the civic body has failed to take action against developers who have not paid a premium running into crores of rupees since the last several years. Premium worth `620 crore has been pending from the developers in about 104 redevelopment proposals.
The BMC’s failure to collect the premium was once again highlighted in the civic improvement committee on Monday with the corporators criticising the civic administration for its lax attitude and demanding tough action against the errant developers.
The civic body charges premium from builders of redevelopment projects in the island city under section 33 (7) of the Development Control Regulation (DCR), 1991. In lieu of the premium, developers are awarded a floor space index (FSI) of 3. In the island city, areas from Colaba to Sion and Colaba to Mahim, 104 redevelopment projects were sanctioned in the last few years.
Last year it was revealed in the improvement committee that premium dues worth `628 crore were pending with the BMC. Since then the civic body has managed to collect `8 crore. According to civic officials, it was found out that most of the developers would pay the initial 10 per cent premium, which is charged on the capital value structure, but would then evade the payment of the remaining 90 per cent.
“To prevent this, we decided to charge 20, 60 and 20 per cent of the premium amount at the time of issuing the letter of intent, commencement certificate for sale and occupancy certificate for sale, respectively. But even this move has failed to get desired results,” said a civic official.
BJP corporator Prakash Gangadhare said, “There is a need of stringent rules to avoid such huge losses. The BMC should take necessary steps for this.”
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