BENGALURU: In the first such instance, the Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority (K-RERA) on Thursday slapped a penalty on builders of 440 projects across the State, who have not submitted annual audit reports despite repeated notices. The total penalty levied on these projects comes to roughly around Rs 40 crore.
Senior RERA officials told TNIE that the audit report in question pertains to fiscal 2021-2022 for which the report (Form 7) was to be submitted to the Authority by Sept 2022. “This is of crucial importance to home buyers as it makes clear the amount collected from home buyers and how much of it was utilised in the construction of projects. It is aimed at introducing transparency. These projects were constructed at a cost ranging between Rs 2 crore and Rs 200 crore,” he said.
“For the financial year ending March 2022, the audit report had to be uploaded on our website within six months, as mandated under Section 4(2) (L) (D) of the RERA Act. It was not done in the case of these 440 projects. We issued three circulars last year to the promoters, reminding them about it on Oct 13, Nov 16 and Dec 16. The deadline for submission was also extended to Jan 15, 2023,” the official said. Builders were sent e-mail notices this year, followed by physical notices on the urgent need to come out with its reports, but the builders ignored them, he added.
Another official said the penalty levied was 0.5 percent of the project cost. “The notices on the penalty were issued today (Dec 14) and will reach the promoters within two days. They need to pay up the penalty within 30 days of the receipt of the notice,” he said. Failure to pay up within the stipulated deadline will force K-RERA to take action under Section (40) (1) of the RERA Act, which deals with recovery enforced through land arrears, the official said.
Among the projects for which penalty have been levied are Keystone Projects, Arihant Foundation and Homes Limited, Classic Builders and Icon Infra Shelters Private Limited.
“This is just the first such action, we have only taken action against projects which are registered under us after 2021. In the next stage, we will take up projects before 2021 and so on,” he explained.