Developer Lalitkumar Jain, who earned the sobriquet 'Green man of Pune' for his eco-friendly initiatives, is on a mission yet again. This time, he is taking up cudgels against black money - one of the worst problems plaguing the real estate sector - but against the very support system of the industry.
"The sector (real estate) is used as a medium to park black money. My point is why this sector should bear the brunt when we are not the beneficiaries?" Jain, chief of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI), said in an interview.
Under the existing practice, buyers pay a part of the total payment (varying from deal to deal) to builders in cash without receipts or any other form of acknowledgements. CREDAI and its members have decided to do away with all black money transactions in the sector, he added.
"We don't want any money beyond Rs 20 in cash, not even Rs 100. Transparency is what the real estate sector needs now," said the civil engineer-turned multi-project developer, who made representations, through his association, to the PM requesting his intervention.
According to Jain, who had been associated with CREDAI from its inception, builders are accepting black money to increase cash inflow. A single-window approval system with faster sanctioning of proposals will help in reducing the influence of black money, he said.
Jain, who started his career at the age of 17 as a supervisor with a Pune firm, is also working for developers and their stakeholders, the customers.
As president of the industry, Jain is seeking reforms on land regulations, tax and legal issues that needed to be addresses on a warfooting. "Delay in approvals, which delays projects, is still the single- biggest issue," he said, adding that a real estate developer needs to get at least 40 approvals for every project.
A connoisseur of Indian classical music, especially of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Kishori Amonkar, Jain through his company, Kumar Urban development Ltd (KUL), donates about 10,000 saplings every year to civic bodies in Pune city.
KUL, which has constructed residential complexes, malls, IT parks and SEZs, had also planned for an initial public offering, which put on hold due to the sluggish market conditions.
Source:indiatoday.intoday.in
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