PANAJI: Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar’s announcement that the government will refund infrastructure tax paid by builders has brought a breather to the real-estate community, but the long-term solution for such issues is to make sure that sufficient infrastructure exists before builders plan their project.
In the recent budget, Parsekar announced that the lesser of 75% of amount paid as infrastructure tax in excess of Rs 1 lakh or the amount spent by builder on various infra like power, sanitation and water upto the boundary of construction will be refunded to builders with effect from April 01, 2014.
Builders have been complaining for a while that they pay huge amounts as infrastructure tax but the government doesn’t provide basic amenities like power and water in several areas where projects are coming up, which beats the purpose of infrastructure tax.
Naturally, Parsekar’s announcement will make sure that builders will not have to pay for infra from their pocket to a good extent, because that is the responsibility of the state government.
But, there’s a catch here. The government will refund money spent on creating infra “upto” the boundary of construction, which means it will not refund money spent on infra inside the project.
Take the example of projects at Kadamba Plateau, where builders have been providing water to residents through bore-wells, which are inside the project. Parrikar’s announcement wouldn’t help such builders.
The problem is actually deeper. KulaSekhar, designated partner, Milroc, said, “We have been trying to file an application at public-works-department (PWD) for water connection for our project at Kadamba plateau for the last 1.5 years, but they aren’t even accepting our application”
Dr Jagannath (Desh) Prabhudessai, president of the Goa unit of CREDAI said, “The state government should take initiative and develop infrastructure everywhere projects are coming up”.
CREDAI stands for Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India.
Often, builders pay for drawing cables from a sub-station for power connection for their project, which is actually the responsibility of the state government. Creating necessary infra so that such instances don’t happen is the long-term solution.
