Builders steal' Rs 1,500 crore from Telangana revenue share

Hyderabad: Builders owe the state government nearly Rs 1,500 crore in unpaid revenues. Since 2001, several builders had launched projects in Hyderabad and other cities under joint ventures with the state government in undivided AP with an agreement that they would share revenues of up to 5 per cent for residential and commercial projects after the same were complete.

About nine major builders alone owe nearly Rs 600 crore to the government. The TS government has now initiated steps to recover these dues from the builders.

These joint ventures were between the builders and the AP Housing Board in prime localities in Hyderabad. While 19 such JV projects were launched between 2004 and 2008, only one has been completed and the others are either under various stages of construction or have halted midway or did not commence operations at all even after holding lands for years together.

As per the agreements, the builders had agreed to share revenues with the government in the form of stamp duty, registration fee, VAT etc. and to share revenues with APBH in the form of constructing LIG houses for the poor. However, sharing of revenues has been pending for years.

The state government has now constituted a Cabinet sub-committee to recommend measures on how to recover the arrears from these builders.