The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : One-time settlement offer for Housing Board defaulters

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 09, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

One-time settlement offer for Housing Board defaulters

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, JUNE 8. For the first time since its inception in 1960, the AP Housing Board has come out with a one-time settlement offer to recover dues from the allottees under the hire purchase scheme, amounting to about Rs. 70 crores.

The State Housing Board had constructed about 75,000 houses/flats in all categories of LIG, MIG, HIG and Economically Weaker Section Categories. The allottees of about 33,000 houses have become defaulters due to non-payment of all instalments spread over a period of 15 years to 20 years.

The defaulters -- some of them since as far back as 1964 -- had been levied penal interest, one-and-a-half times over and above the normal rate of interest. In some cases the penal interest itself amounted to about Rs.1 lakh.

In response to some defaulters' plea, the APHB decided to offer discount of penal interest only for those who choose one-time settlement, according to T.S.V.Ratnam, a spokesperson of APHB.

The APHB authorities announced three dates -- June 30, September 30, 2004 and March 31 next year, for those who are interested in availing one-time-settlement offer.

Those who choose to pay the entire balance amount by June 30 will get a discount in penal interest by 25 per cent to 75 per cent depending on their category of house and the number of years from the date of taking possession of house. Those who clear the balance by September 30, will get a discount of 15 per cent to 60 per cent and those planning to pay by March 31 next year will get 10 per cent to 50 per cent discount.

Further, an incentive of 2 per cent on the final cost will be given to allottees who are willing to close their accounts by paying the entire balance in lumpsum within five years from the date of taking possession and registering the house/flat. Those who wanted to pay the amount between five to 10 years of taking possession and register would get an incentive of one per cent on final cost. The one-time settlement scheme will not be available beyond March 31, 2005.

Those interested may contact the executive engineers of their respective divisions or the estate officer or PRO in the head office at `Gruhakalpa' building, Nampally, Mr. Ratnam said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh