Housing department halves non-construction penalty

Tribune News Service
Mohali, May 31

Punjab’s Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced it would halve its non-construction penalty—a move it hopes would encourage people to begin construction on their plots.

A non-construction charge is a penalty charged by housing authorities for not starting construction on plots developed by government and development authorities within a specified period.

The department also replaced its previous half-yearly method of calculating these penalties with a monthly one. It hopes these new changes would encourage people who were forced to sell their properties because of the high penalties to begin construction.

These new changes are applicable to plots of residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial nature as well as to housing societies and private builders.  A spokesperson from the department said an amendment was made in the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act, 1995.

Owners of residential and other properties must pay the penalty on the prevalent reserve price of plots or sites in the vicinity without any interest. For commercial sites, however, this penalty would be charged on the basis of the auctioned or the allotment price.

Any delayed payment would attract compounded interest at 7 per cent per annum. 

The new penalties will come into force retrospectively from April 16, 2021. Old charges will continue to apply before this date, the spokesperson said.