07 - 09 - 2020

CREDAI Bengal Daily News Update | 07.09.20

Indian companies raise record $31 billion equity capital in

shrinking economy

Indian companies have raised a record $31 billion in equity capital in 2020, Refinitiv data

showed, as banks strengthen their balance sheets to prepare for future economic uncertainty and

corporates tap into the elevated global liquidity levels.

The record raising comes despite India's economy contracting 23.9% in the June-quarter, year

on year, which puts it on track for the first annual contraction since 1980.

The rush of deals though has not been extended to Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), which have

fallen to a five-year low to be worth just $1.5 billion, in the eight months year to date, the data

showed.

Banks have been the most active issuers, raising $13.68 billion, followed by the energy and

power sector with $7.05 billion, and consumer products with $3.41 billion.

Reliance Industries' $7-billion raising in June was the country's largest, the data showed, as the

company turned net debt-free and is now looking to expand its consumer business by acquiring

Future Group's retail arm.

Newspaper/Online The Times Of India ( online )

Date September 04, 2020

Link https://content.magicbricks.com/property-news/indian-companies-raise-record-31-

billion-equity-capital-in-shrinking-economy/115842.html

Real estate companies were identified by corporate advisors as the most likely candidates to tap

the markets further in 2020 as property demand is expected to return after the disruption caused

by the coronavirus crisis.

Surging cash levels – helped by $15 trillion of stimulus made available for economies to

withstand the fallout of the pandemic was primarily responsible for the raising rush, advisors

said.

"We expect issuance to expand further to growth capital in the coming weeks and months, and

the pipeline is developing across sectors," said Citigroup's India Head of banking and capital

markets Ravi Kapoor.

EY India Partner Sandip Khetan said the banks' raisings helped created "a cushion to the

potential losses on account of credit losses" that could occur in the future.

Foreign appetite to buy Indian equities has risen sharply, with investors outside India buying

$10.3 billion of new shares in the three months to August, the Refinitiv data showed.

"The interest from foreign investors has been very strong and that reflects the fact that the

quality of issuers that have come to market have been from the Top 100 companies." said

Morgan Stanley's Executive Director Samarth Jagnani.

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Govt sanctions Rs 10,000 cr for stuck realty projects; but covid hits

completion of 71,559 houses

Though a government-backed alternate investment fund (AIF) has sanctioned as much as

Rs 10,284 crore to help complete 101 stuck housing projects, only a fraction of the

approved fund has been released.

Though a government-backed alternate investment fund (AIF) has sanctioned as much as Rs

10,284 crore to help complete 101 stuck housing projects, only a fraction of the approved fund

has been released. Industry sources told FE disbursement has been to the tune of only Rs 1,000-

1,500 crore, as a Covid-induced slowdown in construction has kept a lid on offtake.

Some of the projects that have received final approval for the funds are Highland Park (Ansal

Housing) in Gurgaon; Naman Premier (Naman Group) in Mumbai’s Andheri East; Upper

Thane project (Lodha Developers); Primera (Ramprastha Group) in Gurgaon; Asha

Bahadurgarh (Essel) in the national capital region; Mantri Serenity (Mantri Developers) in

Bengaluru; Lake Grove (TDI) in Sonepat and Vedantam Minaret (Magnus) in Delhi’s

Indirapuram.

According to an official estimate, the sanctioned funds, once disbursed, will enable the

completion of 71,559 houses across the country. SBICAP Ventures, an arm of SBI Capital

Markets, is entrusted by the government to manage this AIF.

A spokesperson for the fund, set up under the Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income

Housing (SWAMIH), declined to share disbursement details but said: “It is worth noting that

disbursements will always be gradual because they will be calibrated to the progress of

construction.” Therefore, disbursements will take place in several tranches over a construction

Newspaper/Online Financial Express ( online )

Date September 07, 2020

Link https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/stuck-realty-projects-sanctions-cross-rs-

10000-crore-but-offtake-slow/2076560/

period of 1-3 years. “Also, remember that Covid-related lockdowns have impacted worker

mobilisation since March,” he said in an email reply.

The 101 projects are spread across a broad mix of markets, including metros and also Tier- 2

locations like Karnal, Panipat, Lucknow, Surat, Dehradun, Kota, Nagpur, Jaipur, Nashik, Vizag

and Chandigarh.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has reviewed the performance of the SWAMIH fund at

least twice since July and asked officials concerned to further speed up the process. As of

August 20, the fund gave final approval to investments of Rs 3,472 crore in 22 projects, while

preliminary nod was granted to 79 projects involving investments of Rs 6,812 crore, the finance

ministry recently said.

After a meeting in July, the finance ministry had said the SWAMIH Fund was also actively

evaluating options to provide relief to more than 15,000 homebuyers in certain long-stalled

projects which were pending before the Supreme Court for resolution.

The fund was announced on November 6, 2019 and raised Rs 10,530 crore from 14 investors,

including LIC, HDFC and SBI, when it declared its first close in December. The plan was to

have a Rs 25,000-crore fund, with contribution of both the government and other investors.

The government had pledged a total of Rs 10,000 crore for this purpose, as it wanted to kick-

start the investment cycle in residential projects and deliver houses to people who have been

humbled by the double whammy of undelivered homes and regular repayment of home loans. It

was also supposed to boost private consumption once houses are delivered.

Analysts believe that offtake will improve once construction activity picks up pace once the

impact of the pandemic wanes. Adishesh Mitra, senior director (Capital Markets) at JLL India,

said the fund’s reduction in the cost of capital to 12% has drawn a lot of players. “For the sake

of comparison, if the same deal was done with a non-SWAMIH fund, then the interest rate

could be in the range of 18-20% (given the risk aversion among lenders towards realty).”

According to an industry estimate late last year, as many as 4.58 lakh housing units were facing

delayed delivery across 1,509 stalled projects.

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HDFC disburses over 50,000 PMAY home loans in last six months

In a statement, HDFC said it has approved over Rs 47,000 crore of home loans under

CLSS to more than 2 lakh homebuyers belonging to the Economically Weaker Section

(EWS), Low Income Group (LIG) and Middle Income Groups (MIG).

Affordable home loans and loans linked credit subsidy scheme of the government targeted at

lower and middle income segments have been growing steadily for HDFC. The country’s

biggest mortgage lender has dissbursed more than 50,000 home loans under the

government’s Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) scheme in the past six months, including

five months of lockdown period.

This is half of the 100,000 disbursed in the past one year. In the five months since April, HDFC

approved loans worth Rs 38,000 crore indicating that home loan appetite in smaller cities and

towns was not badly hurt by the pandemic.

The government had introduced a credit linked subsidy scheme (CLSS) in June 2015 under the

PMAY wherein borrowers are eligible for interest subsidy. The scheme was extended to the

middle-income group (MIG) from January 2017.

In May, as part of the second tranche of economic relief package, the government extended the

scheme for MIG until March 2021, while schemes for economically weaker sections (EWS) and

low-income group (LIG) are valid up to March 31, 2022.

“Due to the Covid-19 crisis, a number of sectors including the real estate sector have been

affected. We feel the demand for housing will pick up gradually as the economy emerges out of

this difficult period and confidence in the economy is restored… The last one-year performance

including the rapid near doubling of growth supports this view and is on account of

government’s continuous measures to improve the scheme,” said Renu Sud Karnad, managing

director, HDFC.

Karnad said the structural demand for housing in India will always be strong due to factors

including improved affordability, government’s thrust on affordable housing, favourable

demographics, increasing urbanisation and rising aspirations.

In the past five years, HDFC has approved more than 47,000 crore of home loans under CLSS

to homebuyers in EWS, LIG and MIG.

Subsidy under PMAY amounting to more than 4,700 crore has been passed on to these 200,000

homebuyers since the government launched the scheme in June 2015.

Newspaper/Online ET Realty ( online )

Date September 07, 2020

Link https://realty.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/allied-industries/hdfc-disburses-

over-50000-pmay-home-loans-in-last-six-months/77970596

Under the scheme, middle income homebuyers with annual income of 6-18 lakh can avail the

benefit of subsidised interest on their home loans.

The scheme is aimed at achieving the government’s objective of ‘Housing for All’.

According to property sector experts, lowest-ever home loan interest rates and property prices

that have witnessed both price and time correction, along with tax benefits on home loans and

increase in the trend for working from home, are pushing demand for housing.

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Home affairs minister directs GHMC officials to clear one lakh

pending PMAY forms

He said the Centre wants all the poor families in the country should be benefited and get

their homes.

Union minister of state for home affairs G Kishan Reddy has said over one lakh applications

pertaining to the people, who came forward to construct their houses under PM Awas Yojana

(PMAY), are pending with GHMC and directed the officials to clear them at the earliest.

He said the Centre wants all the poor families in the country should be benefited and get their

homes.

The minister held a meeting with officials on street vendors, Mudra loans, and implementation

of central government schemes on Saturday.

________________________________________________________________

Newspaper/Online ET Realty ( online )

Date September 06, 2020

Link https://realty.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/residential/home-affairs-

minister-directs-ghmc-officials-to-clear-one-lakh-pending-pmay-forms/77959878

Maharashtra may review ready reckoner rates by the end of

September

Senior officials dropped hint that the state government might reduce the ready reckoner

(RR) rates wherever they were on the higher side. The RR rates have remained

unchanged for the past two-and-a-half years.

The state government may review the ready reckoner rates by the month-end, focusing on their

rationalisation.

Senior officials dropped hint that the state government might reduce the ready reckoner (RR)

rates wherever they were on the higher side. The RR rates have remained unchanged for the

past two-and-a-half years.

A source in the state revenue said the rates had been reviewed and the fresh RR rates could be

issued shortly. “With the second quarter of the financial year ending in September, the

announcement is expected by the end of this month for implementation from the third quarter,”

the source said.

The RR rates are prices of residential or commercial properties, and plots for a given area,

based on which their market value and stamp duty is charged. It is usually declared on March

31 every year. But this year, the state government delayed its announcement because of the

Covid-19 pandemic.

Developers stressed that new rates would hold no significance if the review was done before the

Covid-19 outbreak. A property consultant of the city said, “On one hand, the government has

announced a reduction in the stamp duty. On the other, it cannot announce any increase in the

RR rates. Against this backdrop, the government should reduce the rates, which it can do.”

The national vice-president of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of

India (Credai), Shantilal Kataria, told TOI that the RR rates were kept constant for the past two

years while it was supposed to be decreased because of the sluggish real estate market over the

state both in urban and rural areas.

“The Covid-19 worsened the situation and the realty sector scenario will not improve till March

2021. Hence, no question arises about any increase in RR rates anywhere in the state,” he

added.

________________________________________________________________

Newspaper/Online ET Realty ( online )

Date September 06, 2020

Link https://realty.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/maharashtra-may-

review-ready-reckoner-rates-by-the-end-of-september/77959446

From October 7/12 extract will be issued in new format in

Maharashtra

The state government approved the proposal that mooted the changes in the document

this week. By October, the records will be available to those who have to be issued new

documents.

From October, the 7/12 extracts in the state will be issued in a new format. They will have a

land records department’s watermark and the state government’s logo, name and code of the

village, and the last entry of the land owner will be struck out. There would be a total of 12

changes in the entire format.

Such a change is being made to the record of rights document after 50 years to weed out

fraudulent land transactions. The fresh look will make the document simple and easy to

understand, state settlement commissioner and director of land records S Chockalingam said.

Revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat approved the rollout at a recent meeting, officials said.

“The striking off of the previous owner’s name will indicate clear title of the new owner,”

Chockalingam told TOI.

The state government approved the proposal that mooted the changes in the document this

week. By October, the records will be available to those who have to be issued new documents.

The earlier digitised 2.5 crore land records too will be readied in the same manner, deputy

collector Ramdas Jagtap said. He is in charge of the digital India land records modernisation

programme.

Jagtap said the new format will be more informative and easy to understand for a person. “It

will include village local government’s directory code, total area of that survey number or sub-

survey number, including cultivable land and fallow land. It will give pending mutations and

have the last mutation number. A separate village form number will be maintained for

agriculture and non-agriculture land,” he said.

The mention of agricultural land and non-agricultural land in the extracts will make the purpose

clear to a citizen.

The 7/ 12 extract (saath-baara utara) is named after the two forms that are used to collect the

information for the extract. One is the village form VII which records all details of the owner

and his rights to the land, and the other is village form XII which records the agricultural details

of the land.

Newspaper/Online ET Realty ( online )

Date September 05, 2020

Link https://realty.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/regulatory/from-october-7/12-

extract-will-be-issued-in-new-format-in-maharashtra/77948459

Both forms are prescribed in the Maharashtra Land Revenue Record of Rights and Registers

Rules, 1971. The information in both forms is filled in the registrar of land records.

The document is used to check the ownership of ancestral land in a village. It reveals past

disputes or litigation or orders passed that affect the land. It also has a record of all activities

carried out on the land.

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South Delhi civic body extends property tax amnesty scheme

Under the general amnesty scheme, property holders who make payment of outstanding

dues by 30 September will be entitled to 100% interest and penalty waiver.

To provide relief to residents, South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has decided to

extend the date of its general amnesty scheme for payment of outstanding dues for all types of

properties without any interest or penalty in all the categories till the end of this month.

Under the general amnesty scheme, property holders who make payment of outstanding dues by

30 September will be entitled to 100% interest and penalty waiver.

"Now, property owners can deposit their tax for the current financial year 2020-2021 with 15%

rebate by September 30 against the earlier deadline of August 31," said South Delhi Municipal

Corporation standing committee chairman Rajdutt Gehlot.

The last date of the new amnesty scheme introduced for the unauthorised colonies has also been

extended till the end of this month. "They can deposit the property tax for only two financial

years 2019-20 and 2020-21. Their pending tax from 2004 to 2019 will be completely waived,"

said a south civic body official.

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Newspaper/Online ET Realty ( online )

Date September 07, 2020

Link https://realty.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/regulatory/south-delhi-civic-

body-extends-property-tax-amnesty-scheme/77970892

Property registration dips 37.5% in Pune in August

Stamp duty collections for August was Rs 201 crore as against Rs 156 crore in July in

Pune district and the number of documents registered was only 12,992 as against 20,790

documents in July.

Property registration in Pune, a thriving real estate market in the state, declined in August by

37.5 % as homebuyers held back in anticipation of a possible reduction in stamp duty. The state

government reduced the stamp duty last week.

Stamp duty collections for August was Rs 201 crore as against Rs 156 crore in July in Pune

district and the number of documents registered was only 12,992 as against 20,790 documents

in July.

The collections have improved by Rs 31 crore compared to June, the first complete month of

activity since the lockdown, but it has not managed to build on the growth witnessed in July.

Also, the collection remains less than 50% of that achieved in February prior to the outbreak of

the virus and subsequent lockdowns, Inspectorate General of Registration and Stamps officials

said.

Last week, the government of Maharashtra reduced the stamp duty on property registrations to

2% for transactions between September 1 and December 31 from current 5%. The stamp duty

will be 3% for agreements to be registered between January 1and March end.

The possibility of this reduction was discussed for more than a week prior to the announcement.

National Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) vice

president Shantilal Kataria told TOI people were waiting for the announcement as it would help

them save money.

“Actual buyers will save a lot and others will be attracted to invest in properties which will help

increase the government revenue reduced heavily due to the pandemic in the last five months,”

he said.

With the festive season here, realty developers and property consultants expect the reduction in

stamp duty charges coupled with the offers and other incentives to push sales and increase

revenue collection from September.

Newspaper/Online ET Realty ( online )

Date September 06, 2020

Link https://realty.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/regulatory/property-registration-

dips-37-5-in-pune-in-august/77959415

Property consultants said the government is expected to cover up for lost revenue when sales in

the affordable and mid-income segments increase during the festive season.

________________________________________________________________

Andhra Pradesh HC stays endowment land acquisition for housing

scheme

The state government initiated the process to acquire 32.26 acres of land to allot house

sites to landless poor under ‘Navaratnalu-Pedalandariki Illu’ scheme.

The AP high court on Friday stayed the land acquisition proceedings issued against the land

belonging to Rajamahendravara Vaisya Seva Sadhana Sangam.

The state government initiated the process to acquire 32.26 acres of land to allot house sites to

landless poor under ‘Navaratnalu-Pedalandariki Illu’ scheme.

Devana Narasimha Rao moved the high court with a public interest litigation (PIL) petition

challenging the decision of East Godavari district collector to acquire land belonging to Vaisya

Seva Sadhana Sangham situated at Velugubanda village under Rajanagaram mandal.

He contended that though the land belongs to Vaisya Seva Sadhana Sangham, it is now part of

the endowment properties as the said organisation was merged in the endowments department.

The petitioner also pointed out the objections raised by endowments commissioner against

acquisition of land.

In a letter written to the revenue authorities, the endowments commissioner said acquiring

endowment properties is prohibited.

The high court had earlier directed not to acquire any endowment properties without a prior

permission of the court.

The counsel appearing for the petitioner argued that the land acquisition proceedings initiated

by the East Godavari district administration are in violation of AP Charitable and Hindu

Religious Institutions and Endowments Act. He sought interim relief staying the proceedings

initiated pending disposal of the petition.

Taking his arguments into consideration, the high court bench headed by Chief Justice

JK Maheswari and Justice K Suresh Reddy directed the state government not to proceed with

the acquisition of land.

The high court asked as to how the proceedings were initiated even after the endowment

Newspaper/Online ET Realty ( online )

Date September 06, 2020

Link https://realty.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/regulatory/andhra-pradesh-hc-

stays-endowment-land-acquisition-for-housing-scheme/77943538

commissioner raised objections.

The high court directed the respondents to file counter affidavits and granted interim stay on

land acquisit’ion proceedings.

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