BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha chapter of Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI) has suggested a slew of measures to the State government including 50 per cent reduction in stamp duty and registration charges on sale of housing units for two years to revive the real estate sector that has been hit hard by Covid-19.
CREDAI Odisha chairman DS Tripathy said growth of real estate sector was at its peak in the State during 2012 when Bhubaneswar was ranked two in terms of favourite destination for NRI investment after Bengaluru. The sector, however, was badly hit there after due to a number of hurdles including recession and demonetisation. “The RERA Act and GST, in spite of their good cause, also slowed down the growth of this sector and just when it was about to revive, the Covid-19 pandemic came as another big blow. In this situation, the sector requires large attention and support from the Government for its revival,” said Tripathy.
The CREDAI State chapter has suggested that 50 per cent reduction in stamp duty and registration charges on first sale of housing units by private developer/development authority or housing board should be provided for next two years to make the housing projects affordable and catch the attention of buyers. The move will not only increase the sale of housing units but will also bring more revenue to the State exchequer and give a boost to real estate investments in the State. States like Maharashtra and Karnataka have already taken these measures, the CREDAI members said.
Apart from this, the realtors have also suggested introduction of development agreement-cum-general power of attorney in stamp and registration of Revenue department by keeping charges to this category maximum one per cent of the land cost, subject to maximum of `50,000. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have kept these charges limited to 1 per cent while in West Bengal it is with the highest cap of `75,000, they stated.