Sector 76-80 enhancement cost: Allottees liable to payinterest, says GMADA

Clearing its stand over the enhancement charges levied by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) on residential plots in Sectors 76 to 80, the development authority in its detailed reply has maintained that the residents are liable to pay interest due on delayed payments.

Even as GMADA has approached the state government, by sending a proposal, for reducing the charges by around ₹800 per square metre following objections raised by around 30,000 residents living in these five sectors. It has conveyed to the allottees that if the state government accepts the proposal, they would only have to pay around ₹2,400- ₹2,500 per square metre instead of ₹3,164 per square metre as additional cost.

Enhancement charges refer to the additional amount paid to landowners against acquisition.

After holding a meeting with the Sector 76-80 plot allotment welfare committee last month, which had moved Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) in October last year, against the said charges; GMADA sent a detailed reply to the committee.

As per residents, the initial enhancement amount, in 2013, was ₹300 crore but as GMADA failed to collect it in a timely manner, it ended up adding ₹288 crore in interest, which it tried to shift onto the allottees.

The HC then directed GMADA officials to communicate with the representatives of the committee (petitioner).

GMADA’s assessment illegal: Committee

During the meeting of both the parties, committee president Sucha Singh Kalaur questioned the recovery of additional amount by applying the 2019 policy with retrospective effect, terming it an illegal assessment. He contended that the additional price in question was assessed as per the policy framed in the year 2019 - after 12 years of allotment of plots and after five years of the enhancement orders passed by the Supreme Court. Kalaur added that the authority had already assessed the additional price in 2013, much before the approval of the policy.

GMADA, in its reply, stated that there was an interim assessment which was calculated in 2013, but as the further enhancement orders were passed by various courts, this calculation was revised in 2019.

“Both of the calculations cannot be considered as a policy, rather a revision of calculations. It has been clearly mentioned in the allotment letters of the allottees that if any additional price is put over the current land, it will be recovered from the allottees,” GMADA replied in the meeting.

‘Lost bank interest due to delayed payments’

The committee further alleged that the authority wrongly added 8% interest to the additional price.

However, according to GMADA, the original and subsequent allottees have earned certain interest over the amount which is actually pending towards the authority. “GMADA would have earned interest if that payment was paid on time. So, the allottees are liable to pay the interest to GMADA due to the delay in payments,” the reply read.

The committee also raised concern over recovery of additional price of land that falls in Sectors 85 to 90. It contended that out of 1,264-acre land meant for Sectors 76 to 80; as many as 80 acres of land falls in Sectors 85 to 90. However GMADA agreed to consider this point.

The committee further raised concerns over the saleable area and argued that the guidelines for assessment and recovery of additional price were approved in the 57th meeting of GMADA, held on March 5, 2019, under the chairmanship of the then chief minister. However in the meeting held on August 10, 2022, under GMADA chief administrator, saleable area was reduced which is arbitrary and unjust, the committee said.

GMADA, in its reply, said the various institutions such as educational, religious and public enterprises are established to serve public purposes and would eventually benefit the public in the surrounding areas. “Thus, it was decided that their additional price liability will fall on the residents of the surrounding area, which are Sectors 76-80,” the development authority submitted.