MahaRERA asks real estate agents to submit half-yearly reports

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) on Tuesday issued directives to real estate agents to mandatorily submit half-yearly reports of their transactions to bring transparency and accountability.

The circular also made it mandatory for real estate agents with turnover of over ₹20 lakh to appoint a principal officer and a designated director in their firms and update the record with the authority as per the guidelines issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). In November 2022, the PMLA had notified the real estate agent defined under section 2 of RERA as a “person carrying on designated business or profession.”

There are 37,746 real estate agents presently registered with the MahaRERA presently.

The PMLA guidelines issued by the Directorate General of Audit, Indirect Taxes and Customs mention that real estate offers a convenient way to launder large amounts in a single transaction and offers secondary benefits for criminals, such as helping them to secure residence, ensuring social respectability, and providing an immediately available good of material benefit. Real estate is often an appreciating asset that can generate returns and become a good source of personal gains and therefore, a real estate agent must be able to take customer due diligence (CDD) measures like identification and verification.

Section 10 (b) of RERA and MahaRERA Rule 11 (5) already mandate real estate agents to maintain and preserve books of accounts, records, and documents separately for each project, whereas MahaRERA rule 16 prescribes that these records need to be produced for inspection as and when required under the I-T Act and the Companies Act provisions.

The Tuesday’s circular also asked registered real estate agents to upload on their respective web pages half-yearly progress reports of transactions from April to September and October to March as prescribed in Form 6. The circular also said the April to September report should be uploaded on or before October 20, and the second half-yearly report should be uploaded on or before April 20 as per the financial calendar.

“In the event the half-yearly progress report in the manner and as per the timelines mentioned above is not submitted, action as deemed fit shall be initiated by the authority,” the circular issued by MahaRERA secretary Vasant Prabhu read. It also made clear that only portions marked with an asterisk will be made public to enable greater transparency and citizen empowerment. “The commissions earned by the agent will not be made public,” an official said, adding that the order will come into force from April 1, 2023.

In January, the MahaRERA had announced that real estate agents will have to undergo online examinations and obtain competency certificates by September 2023 from the authority before they are allowed to practise their business.