Technical glitches delay registration of flats

Vijayawada: N Sudhkar, a bank employee had a dream of owning a flat in Vijayawada and entered into an agreement with the builder for purchasing it. He paid an amount of Rs 8 lakh in advance and told the builder that he would pay the remaining amount at the time of registration. However, even after eight months, Sudhakar is still not able to get the flat registered in his name.

His dream of shifting to his own house is getting delayed for several months due to the technical problem being faced by VMC which is facing difficulties in issuing an ‘occupancy certificate’ to the builder.

If the builder gets the OC, the flat buyer can get exemption from GST as per the recent announcement made by the Union Government. The Central Government exempted 12 per cent of the GST to the customer if the builder completes the construction works and the structure is ready for occupation.

Speaking to The Hans India here on Monday, Sudhakar said that the builder had completed the works and has been vigorously trying to get an OC from VMC for many months. His attempts failed due to some technical problem in the server, he lamented. Earlier, Sudhakar was overjoyed when the Central Government had scrapped GST on purchase of flats. Now, he is very disappointed due to delay in issuing of OC by VMC.

Now, neither the builder is able to sell the flat nor the customer able to get the flat registered in his name due to technical problems. Each flat buyer can save from Rs.1 lakh to Rs.5 lakh due to GST exemption depending on the registration value of the property.

‘Mee seva’ and ‘E-seva’ servers and servers of the stamps and registrations departments are also creating problems in the State for several months. On the other hand, the builders are suffering from many problems due to delay in registrations. Builders in the capital region have invested several hundred crores of rupees for construction of apartments since the bifurcation of State in 2014.

Now, they are not able to get back their investment due to technical problems. K Rajesh, a builder said that he spent Rs.6 crore for construction of an apartment and was struggling to pay interests on the loans every month.

He said that the property developers and realtors have made many representations to higher officials to rectify the server problem but there was no response yet.

In the capital region of Vijayawada, Guntur, Mangalagiri and Tadepalli hundreds of customers are ready to register their flats and shift to their own home. A senior VMC official said that the server problem was not confined to Vijayawada alone but to the entire Sate.

He said the VMC has been implementing online system for the release of building plans for the last two years. Now, the VMC is mainly depending on online system and not able to release plans manual to the applicants.

The civic body gets crores of rupees every year on releasing the building plans. Now, the server problem is reducing its income. Guntur Municipal Corporation is too facing similar problem regularly, added the official.

By Md Ameen