INDIAN INVESTORS SHOULD THINK OF DIRECT DOMESTIC INVESTMENT INSTEAD OF RESOURCES FROM FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS-ANANTHKUMAR

STATES ADVISED TO SLASH DOWN STAMP DUTY TO 5% AND IMPLEMENT ULCRA STRINGENTLY

---

Union Minister for Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation has urged state governments to slash down stamp duty to 5% and reform property tax so that it becomes an important source of government revenue and also an incentive to real estate investors. He was addressing the delegates at the 2nd International Conference on Real Estate "Investing in Economic Growth" in the capital today. He also said that the Urban Land Ceiling Repeal Act(ULCRA) should be implemented and people should be persuaded to cooperate with the government so that a large chunk of land is unlocked for development purposes. "A big chunk of coastal land is locked up in important cities like Mumbai wherein if necessary measures are taken nearly 500 acres of coastal land in Mumbai alone can be unlocked for development and tourism purposes",he added.

Emphasizing on the need to bring about property tax reforms Shri.Kumar said that the Municipal property taxation scheme of Patna and Self-Assessment Scheme of Bangalore have attracted international attention and every state should work on reviewing their property taxation system immediately.

Referring to demands of industrial sector for encouraging FDI Sh. Kumar said that while government encourages and has created necessary climate for foreign direct investment, indian investors should concentrate on domestic direct investment (DDI) and not depend on investments from public financial institutions. He underlined the need for and the moral duty of the government to create basic minimum facilities for one billion people than on creating facilities of global standard for the elite class. He also said that the NDA Government under the leadership of Prime Minister, Sh. Vajpayee has been " forward looking and caring". "While we started with 67 lakh gas connections and 1.5 crore telephone connections 3 years back, today we have reached 3 crore gas connections and 4.5 crore telephone connections", he added.

Sh. Ananth Kumar also said that major reform initiatives have been taken in the urban development sector and HUDCO is being used as an instrument to promote urban infrastructure and housing development. "While the total business transactions of HUDCO last year was RS 9,000 crore, this year it is expected to expand this to Rs 16,000 crores",he added. He called upon real estate developers to built habitat centers and convention centers taking advantage of governments funding, provided they can contribute land required for the same.