Builders are likely to pay the current guideline value for converting buildings housing IT offices for non-IT purpose.
This comes in the wake of the recent authority meeting, where Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) decided to put forth the suggestion by finance department, which wanted builders to pay the current guideline value for calculating premium FSI charges.
In a previous authority meeting, CMDA had passed a resolution where in it had offered the builders the then guideline value to convert the IT buildings for non-IT purposes.
The IT buildings were constructed due to incentives given by State government, which include increased Floor Space Index at 3.75. It is believed more than five million square feet of commercial space in IT buildings remain unoccupied following a slump in the IT sector.
A CMDA official told Express that after the earlier resolution was passed, the joint secretary of Finance had suggested adoption of current guideline value for calculating the applicable premium FSI charges instead of guideline value prevailing at the time of obtaining planning permission.
“The authority has forwarded the earlier resolution to the government along with the suggestion received from the Finance Department,” said the official.
Builders feel that if the government fixes present guideline value to convert IT buildings, it will have few takers. “The present guideline value is too high. It will be too costly for the builder to convert it for non-IT purposes,” said M Raghunathan, state secretary, Builders Association of India, TN.
He said fixing the present guideline value to convert IT buildings would have few takers as the cost of conversion will increase manifold.
V N Devadoss, chairman of VGN Group, said the present guideline value is too harsh on developers. He said different parameters could be adopted rather than fixing the current guideline value.