Realtors owe Rs 8,500-cr EDC dues to state govt

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 12

Major realtors in the state owe Rs 8,500 crore to the state exchequer by way of external development charges (EDC).

According to the data presented during the Budget session today, the Delhi-based Countrywide Promoters tops the list with over Rs727 crore as the outstanding amount followed by realty major Unitech with over Rs540 crore as the outstanding EDC charges.

Prominent among the defaulters included Ansal Properties (Rs256 crore), Ambience (Rs227 crore), DLF(Rs146 crore), Vipul (Rs127 crore) and Navjyoti (Rs123 crore). In fact, all prominent builders, including Parsvnath, Emaar MGF, Bestech, Omaxe, Rahejas, Ireo and Uppals, have the dubious distinction of being in the defaulters’ list.

While, an amount of Rs5,703 crore is due as the principal amount, Rs1,307 crore is pending as interest and Rs1,480 crore as the penal interest. The total outstanding due EDC amount, as on March 7, 2015, is pegged at Rs8,491 crore.

Besides, the licences of 20 builders had been cancelled for violating terms and conditions of the allotment, including default on the EDC payments. These included Parsvnath, Jindal Realcon, Gee City, Rangoli Projects, Aditya Buildwel and Gulmohar Estate.

Relief policy of no use

The “builder-friendly” Hooda government came out with a relief policy for builders regarding the payment of EDC charges on April 12, 2012. According to the policy, a coloniser was granted two years’ time to pay the outstanding dues in four to six monthly instalments on the condition that he submitted a bank guarantee equivalent to 25 per cent of the total outstanding amount. However, the policy seemed to have served no purpose against the backdrop of the huge outstanding EDC payments.

Plaques bearing names of Cong leaders removed
Chandigarh: A resolution was passed in Haryana Vidhan Sabha to remove plaques bearing the names of Congress leaders under the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi and Bhim Rao Ambedkar. Both plaques were removed. Health Minster Anil Vij proposed to remove the names of people under the portrait of great personalities and termed it a wrong tradition. He presented the resolution to remove the plaque and members of the BJP, the INLD and some from the Congress raised hands for the same. The plaques have names of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former Speaker Kuldeep Sharma, former Deputy Speaker Akram Khan and former parliamentary affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala. — TNS