Authority hasn't been repaid for over 20 years; begins sending notices to over 1.80L homes
Over a period of nearly 20 years, the amount owed by 89 housing societies to the Maharashtra Housing And Area Development Authority (MHADA) has reached Rs 262 crore. The MHADA colonies, which comprise of about 1.80 lakh homes spread across the city, are provided services by the Authority which include paying their property tax, Non Agricultural Assessment, water charges, pumping charges, common area electricity charges and others.
In most of the cases, MHADA noticed that the total amount to be paid to the service providers was not collected from the home owners in full and the Authority chipped in the remaining amount at the time. The MHADA recently dispatched notices seeking the owed amount from various societies and home owners.
The service charge that MHADA charges these housing societies is for services like paying their bills, taxes and getting their property assessed by different authorities. The service charge varies depending on the locality of the housing societies. In places where the conveyance deed is done, the society will be charged the amount and in remaining it will be individual home owner.
Subhash Lakhe, chief officer, MHADA's Mumbai Board, under whom the societies fall, confirmed sending the notices and also confirmed the figure of Rs 262 crore. Using an example, Lakhe explained, "If the property tax of a building was Rs 100, the amount collected from all the home owners came to Rs 80, remaining didn't pay or wasn't collected. In such cases MHADA from its own account chipped in Rs 20 and paid the whole tax on behalf of the society. This money spent on behalf of the society belongs to MHADA and needs to be collected from the societies and hence we have sent these notices."
These housing societies were constructed by MHADA under development control rules 33 (5). MHADA provided services and charged a monthly amount which became the service charge. A senior official from MHADA said that the amount due from housing societies includes both deficit in bills and the unpaid service charge.
SERVICE CHARGE
Services provided to these societies by MHADA include paying their property tax, Non Agricultural Assessment, water charges, pumping charges and common area electricity charges among others.
In most cases, the total amount to be paid to the service providers was not collected from the home owners in full and MHADA chipped in the remaining amount.
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 "Housing Societies")
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