Noida tea-seller who bagged a kiosk for Rs 3.25 lakh monthly rent backs out

Sonu Kumar Jha, a tea and gutka seller, who created a sensation last month by bagging a Noida market kiosk for Rs 3.25 lakh per month rent has refused to take possession.

He has cited the inability to pay Rs 45.5 lakh upfront as advance rent of over a year to the Noida Authority.

Jha had shot into the limelight after he made the highest bid of Rs 3.25 lakh a month for a small 7.59 square metre kiosk in the upscale market of sector 18 in Noida. He says he can manage a monthly rent of Rs 3.5 lakh but doesn't have Rs 45 lakh to pay in advance to the Authority.

“I am not taking the kiosk because I cannot pay Rs 45.5 lakh in one go as advance. I can manage the monthly rent but I was not aware that I would have to submit Rs 45.5 lakh. I thought that I will be able to arrange the sum but I have not been able to do so. So now I am thinking of surrendering it to the Authority. I’ll go back to my tea business,” Jha told Moneycontrol.

The auction for the kiosk K-3 was conducted by Noida Authority along with six other kiosks in January this year under its “allotment of commercial kiosk” in the Sector-18 market scheme. The base rent of these kiosks was kept at Rs 27,000 a month.

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Jha said the processing fee of Rs 20,000, which he had submitted to participate in the e-auction has been forfeited. Now the kiosk will be auctioned again and will be allotted to the eligible bidder.

The kiosk K-3 is located near triangle park in front of the fast food restaurant chain McDonald's in the Sector-18 market.

Jha, who sells gutka and tea along with his other family members, was among the 20 contenders in the auction process.

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“The base rent of the kiosk was Rs 27,000 so the overall advance rent for 14 months was around Rs 3.78 lakh. I could have managed that amount but Rs 45.5 lakh is too high for me. I had planned to sell different types of food items including Chinese food, snacks and beverages like juices and shakes. I was also planning to sub-let the kiosk to other vendors and earn rent from them,” Jha said.

Disappointed over the development, Sonu’s father Digambar Jha said they had requested the Noida Authority to break this amount on monthly basis or give them a few more months but to no avail.

“We really wanted to own a shop or kiosk in this upscale market where I had set up my first makeshift vend 25 years back. I wanted a permanent shop so that we do not have to run helter-skelter during anti-encroachment drives of the Authority. The money to be paid upfront is too high for us to manage so we will not be able to take possession of the kiosk,” Digambar Jha said.

Authority’s take

Kumar Sanjay, OSD (Commercial) Noida Authority, said as per the norms, the successful bidder has to deposit 11-month rent and three-month security in advance to get possession of the kiosk within 60 days from the date of the allotment of the property.

“If the bidder does not deposit the required amount, then his allotment of the kiosk will be cancelled and his processing fee would be forfeited. Jha will also be debarred from taking part in any of the auctions of the Noida Authority,” Kumar said.

He said that the kiosk will be put up for auction again.

Also read: Rs 4,000 crore disbursed under PM SVANidhi Scheme for street vendors so far: Hardeep Singh Puri

There is no provision for breaking down this amount into instalments, officials said, adding that because of its prime location, there was competition among bidders, which led to such a high bid.

The scheme to lease out 10 kiosks including K-3, K-7, K-8, K-9, K-12, K-13, K-14, K-15, K-16 and K-17 in the Sector-18 market was launched on December 2 last year. The auction of seven out of 10 kiosks was conducted on January 10, 2023.