BJP MLC seeks stamp duty waiver for houses up to 600 sq ft in all redevelopment projects

Mumbai, Nov 20 (PTI) BJP legislator Pravin Darekar on Thursday demanded waiving of stamp duty for tenements up to 600 sq ft in all redevelopment projects across Mumbai and its suburbs.

Darekar, who is also the chairman of Maharashtra Housing Self/Group Redevelopment Authority, made this demand in a letter written to Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule.

The member of legislative council urged the government to amend its circular to ensure that the benefit currently available to cluster redevelopment is extended to every type of redevelopment project in the city and suburbs.

Two days ago, a meeting chaired by Bawankule was held at the suburban district collector's office to address revenue-department issues related to self-redevelopment on government land. The meeting took place in response to a request from Darekar, and was attended by all MPs and MLAs from Mumbai.

At the meeting, Darekar pointed out that while stamp duty is presently waived for houses up to 400 sq ft in redeveloped tenements, redevelopment in Mumbai is progressing rapidly and most projects now offer houses in the 600-650 sq ft range to ordinary and middle-class residents.

He therefore sought an extension of the waiver to units up to 600 sq ft.

Taking note of this, Bawankule announced a decision to waive stamp duty for houses up to 600 sq ft, following which the state government issued a circular on Thursday.

However, since the circular presently applies only to cluster redevelopment, Darekar wrote to the government seeking that the benefit be made applicable to all redevelopment projects. PTI ND NP