The beleaguered real estate and construction industry finally got a shot in the arm with the liberal provisions announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her first tranche of PM Modi’s ‘Aatma Nirbhar India’ scheme of 20 lakh crore rupees stimulus for the nation’s economy to clamber out of COVID-19 stress
The relief includes permission to treat COVID-19 as an event of ‘force majeure’ under the real estate act, as well as a liberal extension to pending projects. The Housing Ministry will advise all states and union territories and their regulatory authorities to follow this.
As per the original provisions of RERA, failure to complete projects within the timelines would have invited penalties.
Registration and completion date of incomplete projects will now be automatically extended for all registered projects expiring on or after the date of lockdown (25th March). There will be no need for applications. State regulatory authorities can extend this another period of 3 months.
“This will cover construction as well as goods and services contracts,” said the minister, “even the concessional periods will be extended.” The finance minister hoped that these measures will de-stress real estate developers and ensure completion of projection so that homebuyers can hope to get their units within the new timeline
