Strong legal action will be initiated against housing developers in Maharashtra who do not pass on the full benefit of ‘stamp duty exemption’ to the homebuyers under a scheme of the State government, the Maharashtra State Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad told BusinessLine.
Highly placed sources in the State Urban Development Department revealed that it had come to their notice that few Mumbai developers were duping homebuyers by making them pay the stamp duty even after availing the discount scheme.
The Maharashtra government has collected a record amount of nearly ₹15,000 crore from housing developers, mainly from Mumbai city, by giving them a 50 per cent discount on the construction cost and various permission on conditions that they bear the ‘full cost of stamp duty’ on behalf of the homebuyers.
The scheme ended in December 2021 but has been extended to January 2022 and further decision on extension is likely since additional files worth nearly ₹5,000 crore are pending approval, the sources said.
A 5 per cent stamp duty is levied on house purchase in Maharashtra.
But to revive the housing sector and kick-start stalled projects, the State government announced a scheme through which under-construction and new projects were given a heavy discount on construction cost and related permissions involving IOD (Intimation of Disapproval or Authorisation) and CC (completion or commencement certificate).
To compensate retail and middle-class home purchasers,…
