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The West Bengal Government should repeal the Urban Land Ceiling & Regulation Act (ULCA) in order to give a fillip to housing activities in the State, Lalit Kumar Jain, President of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) said here on Thursday.
CREDAI is the apex body of real estate developers of the country.
“It is surprising that Bengal has retained the ULCA while the entire country has abolished it. Those who abolished it benefited as price of land stabilised, including a steady supply of affordable homes,” Jain said at the inauguration of Bengal Leads – a three day conclave on urban infrastructure and housing – organised jointly by the State Government and CREDAI.
ULCA limits the ownership of land for a housing project within the city to a maximum of 17 acres.
According to Jain, repealing the act will also see less speculation on land and bring down the cost of apartments in the city.
Appealing to the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, he urged that administrative procedures need to be streamlined to provide single-window clearances. The floor area ratio (FAR) norms - that determine the height of a building in a particular area – too should be relaxed to allow vertical expansion.
High stamp duty and local taxes, according to Jain, were a deterrent in the region and sought a rationalisation in this regard.
“Compared to most States that have a stamp duty charge of five per cent, in West Bengal the same stands at nearly eight per cent,” he pointed out.
Mamata promises review
The Chief Minister, who was present at the inauguration of the programme, assured CREDAI of looking into their demands.
“I am not promising that I will resolve their demands but will definitely look into them. It is not possible to provide a solution all these issues because of the poor financial health that the State is in,” she said.
A task force consisting of the Urban Development minister, Finance minister and Commerce & Industries minister as well as the respective department secretaries and representation from the different city-based chambers of commerce has been formed to look into the matter.
The task force will submit its report to the Chief Minister within 15-days, she said.
Industry cartels
Meanwhile, admitting that local suppliers’ cartel (called syndicates), were active across the State, especially in the real estate sector, the Chief Minister said that such cartels provide jobs for local youths.
She, however, maintained that arm twisting developers to compulsorily accept such materials from a local supplier would not be tolerated.
“It is good that local youths to have a job. But such supplier cartels cannot arm-twist a developer to take materials from them,” Banerjee said.
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