Real Estate Bill to benefit home buyers

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Tuesday cleared amendments to the Real Estate (Regulation and Develo-pment) Bill 2013 to set up a regulator in this sector. The bill is pending in the Rajya Sabha, and the Cabinet approved amendments to incorporate suggestions made by the parliamentary standing committee. It also approved a proposal to hike dearness allowance by six per cent, that will benefit 48 lakh Central employees and 55 lakh pensioners.

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill is aimed at protecting the interests of consumers, and also seeks to promote fair play in real estate transactions and ensuring timely execution of projects. This is intended to benefit home buyers who have been taken for a ride by builders. The move to amend the Juvenile Justice Act to try those in the 16-18 age group accused of heinous crimes under the IPC was, meanwhile, “dr-opped” from the Cabi-net’s agenda amid op-position from rights activists and a SC observation that there was a need to re-examine the law. 

The amendments to the Real Estate Bill is meant to benefit home buyers who are often taken for a ride by builders. “The Real Estate Bill provides for a uniform regulatory environment. It will also protect consumer interests, besides helping speedy adjudication of disputes and ensure and orderly growth of the real estate sector. The Bill contains provisions of registration of real estate projects and registration of real estate agents with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority,” said a senior official, who added that the legislative proposal also envisages specifying functions and duties of promoters and allottees.

The Bill, which is likely to be taken up by Parliament for consideration soon, also seeks establishment of Real Estate Regulatory Authority and fast track dispute resolution mechanism through adjudication, besides setting up a Real Estate Appellate Tribunal. The government on Tuesday said that the bill will give a fillip to the objective of housing for all by 2022.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet also gave its approval to release an additional installment of Dearness Allowance to central government employees and Dearness Relief to pensioners with effect from January 1, 2015 at the rate of six per cent increase over the existing rate of 107 per cent. The government employees as well as pensioners will get DA/DR at the rate of 113 per cent of the basic pay.

The combined impact on the exchequer would be of the order of Rs 6,762.24 crore per annum and Rs 7,889.34 crore during January 2015 to February 2016.