Builders' body CREDAI to hold awareness sessions on RERA rules in Maharashtra

PUNE: Even as the number of ongoing registrations touched beyond 11,000 with MahaRERA on Friday, Credai members on Saturday said that only 10 projects of their members were registered late.

Maharashtra Credai president Shantilal Kataria said in a survey they found that only 10 developers had registered after the July 31 deadline. According to the Real Estate Regulatory Act, all the ongoing projects had to be registered before July 31.

Kataria said Credai would organise awareness workshops from August 15 on post-RERA registrations.

While the authorities allowed project registrations after July 31, a fee of Rs 50,000 was levied on projects registered on August 1 and 2. Charges for projects registered after August 3 are yet to be decided.

Kataria had requested the chief minister to give time to developers before charging penalty as it was a new Act. However, he said he had not received any reply from the chief minister on the issue.

While other states gave an extension after the deadline, Maharashtra had categorically stated that it would not give any. As a result, projects being registered later are being fined.

However, consumer forums were confused over the haphazard system of levying fines. "The MahaRERA has been doing a good job. But they should specify a time-frame for accepting registration of projects. We had suggested that they should have a blanket rule of 5% and thereafter 10% of the project cost," said Mumbai Grahak Panchayat representative Shirish Deshpande.

Many builders registered on the last day as they could not register on time due to some technical glitches. But officials said the builders should not have registered well in advance and so they are bound to face fines