The Building Penalisation Scheme-2015 has hit apartment owners hard with the TDP government viewing it as a source of revenue and levying hefty penal fee, irrespective of the percentage of deviation, CPI(M) city secretary B. Ganga Rao has said.
The TDP had opposed the scheme announced by the Congress government in 2007. Upon coming to power, the party not only announced the scheme but also doubled the penalty, he alleged.
Online payments
This apart, making payments solely online using debit/credit cards or Net banking was causing hardship to those not familiar with the process, Mr. Ganga Rao said at a press conference here on Friday, and demanded that offline option be also given to the people. He pointed out that following High Court’s orders, the Congress government had amended GO 901 of December 31, 2007, and issued GO 112 in January 2008 reducing the penalties.
Stating that the latest GO 128 doubled the fee prescribed in GO 112, he described as unjust the fixing of penal fee on land value of 2015. The minimum charge for a flat below 600 sft was Rs.20,000 compared to Rs.10,000 in GO 112.
Faulting the government for making flat owners solely responsible for any deviation and letting builders and officials off the hook, Mr. Ganga Rao deplored what he called the “coercive measures” being adopted for revenue.
Making flat owners solely responsible for deviations and letting builders and officials off the hook is unfair.
B. Ganga Rao
CPI(M) city secretary
