RERA roadmap in West Bengal still not clear

West Bengal Housing Minister, Sovan Chatterjee, has said that although the state was working on the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA), “I am unable to tell, by when we will be able to enforce RERA.”

The Real Estate Act came into force on May 1, 2017 and the state government is to notify the rules. The government has circulated the draft rules of the Act, for the stakeholders’ feedback and suggestions. However, officials of the real estate industry body CREDAI Bengal, said that no meeting with the government was has been held so far, to discuss RERA.

See also: The RERA effect: Indian real estate waits to inhale

Only 13 states, including Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and the union territories, have so far notified RERA.

Home buyers’ bodies, have sought that states do not weaken the federal RERA and ensure that the final rules are framed and implemented in the true spirit of the act. The highest parliamentary body – The Committee on Subordinate Legislation (COSL) of the Lok Sabha, had reportedly taken up the slow progress in the implementation of the Act by some states and dilution of rules at the state level.

RERA mandates that the promoters of all ongoing projects, which have not received the completion certificate, register themselves with the state-level regulatory authority and provide complete disclosure of the project details. Sources said, Gujarat’s rules exempt all projects launched before November 2016, from RERA, while Uttar Pradesh excludes projects for which the completion certificates have been applied for.

“There is concern, about the treatment of ongoing projects under the new law. Not impossible but hard to implement,” CREDAI Bengal president, Nandu Belani said. Emami Infrastructure director and CFO Girja Choudhary, corroborating the problems faced by builders, said that there was need for relaxation, vis-à-vis ongoing projects. “We will highlight the same before the Bengal government,” he added.

By: Housing.com/news