In a statement issued by Kolkata’s leading constructive entrepreneur Laxman Jaiswal, Chairman& Managing Director of Ascon Infra India Ltd. said, “Kolkata Municipal Corporation must provide 100% digitised services to the citizens as well as the Real Estate segment. Just as the people are getting the benefit of online payments of various taxes, licences etc, similarly we should also get the benefit of digitisation for all paper works which takes up enormous time delays as well gives the scope of corrupt practices within the system and also a proliferation of middlemen escalating the costs for all concerned. The builders in the KMC areas face insurmountable hurdles getting the required sanctions of plans and registrations due to the lack of e-Governance in these areas. Even in this day and age, man power, human labour is used by the agency to deal with these issues.”
“I am particularly hopeful that KMC shall truly become a faceless service provider with the arrival of Binod Kumar, IAS after his outstanding contribution in introducing e-Waybill during his tenure in the Sales Tax Department.” “As an industrialist I have to literally run from pillar to post every time I start a new project to obtain numerous sanctions overlapping each other and am completely at the whims and at the mercy of sanctioning officials. This must end at the earliest if Bengal has to catapult itself into a position of eminence in the business hierarchy. More often than not, the plan is held up for months with the, delays ranges from several months to over a year and bred corruption.” He added, “It is also harassing and trouble making practise of Kolkata Municipal Corporation for the parties to collect documents from the KMC and again having to submit the same documents at the time of submission of the plan. The KMC can verify from its own data base which is readily available at the time of submission. It is a burden for the consumers and further delays the process. They can also charge for the services digitally with payment gateways thereby not creating any further financial burden.”
“I also urge the West Bengal State Government to relax rules taking a cue from the recent amendment by Maharastra Government to reduce all premiums related to the real estate sector by 50%, applicable till 31 December 2021, result in around 7% reduction in all-in prices in Mumbai and provide a significant boost to real estate demand which is of prime importance in the contracted economy and crisis due to the pandemic”, says Jaiswal.
“Finally I express my gratitude to to the Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for incorporating the differential rate between the circle rate and the agreement value from 10% to 20% based on my suggestion in April 2020 which was widely circulated and to the Union Minister prior to the Union budget. I congratulate our Union Finance Minister for agreeing to my suggestion with relief measures for the real estate sector in the Union Budget” concluded Jaiswal.
Subhojit Roy