Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the state assembly Devendra Fadnavis, who was accompanied by LoP in the state council Pravin Darekar, on Thursday met Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das and urged him to lift curbs imposed on funding by state cooperative banks (SCB) and district central cooperative banks (DCCBs), including Mumbai DCCB to housing societies under self-redevelopment schemes. RBI had said these schemes fall under the commercial real estate category and, therefore, were not entitled for funds from SCB and DCCBs.
Fadnavis has appealed to the RBI to ensure that the finance provided for such schemes is kept out of the purview of commercial real estate as several such schemes were already taken up in Mumbai. He further argued that there is apprehension that, if the self-redevelopment loan scheme becomes dysfunctional, the cooperative housing societies will be left entirely to the mercy of builders. The very purpose behind promoting the self-redevelopment scheme for CHS will stand defeated.
Fadnavis’ intervention is important as RBI’s decision had left the Mumbai District Central Cooperative Bank (MDCCB) and several housing societies with an uncertain way ahead as the bank had already sanctioned over Rs 1,350 crores and another Rs 17 crores was disbursed in loans for such projects. Incidentally, Darekar is the chairman of Mumbai DCCB.
Fadnavis, in a letter submitted to Das, said there are almost 5,800 redevelopment projects in Mumbai that have been lying in some degree of incompleteness and the residents of such housing societies, a lot of whom are senior citizens, have been rendered homeless in spite of having owned one themselves.
Fadnavis recalled, during his chief ministership, the government had cleared the self-redevelopment finance schemes for cooperative housing societies. The government had appointed the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank as the apex bank for the DCCBs and the Co-operative Credit Structure in Maharashtra as the nodal agency for the successful implementation of the Self-Redevelopment Schemes through DCCBs, which also includes providing finance for the projects. He added that more and more co-operative housing societies have adopted the path of self-redevelopment rather than redevelopment through builder or developer.
"Members of cooperative housing societies are benefiting by way of getting additional carpet area and corpus due to the extra FSI benefit. This will also help to boost the entire economy. The government will get sizable revenue from the project, as it is estimated that near about 30% to 40% of project costs are part of government revenue such as various premiums, taxes and duties, amongst others," he said.
