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Source: Times of India
The Telangana Housing Board temporarily stopped housing construction as not getting dues from Telangana state Government
As per Times of India ( Hyderabad) reporter the news is giving here.
The tussle over income-tax dues between the I-T department and Telangana Housing Board (THB) is taking a toll on several under-construction housing projects. The state government has stopped releasing funds to the THB as the I-T department has seized its bank accounts.
Hundreds of allottees of the housing projects are worried as the delay would lead to cost escalation. Though many of them have started payment of EMIs for their home loans, the contractors have stopped work de manding the government to clear their pending bills over the last seven months.
For instance, the THB has started construction of 539 independent houses, both for Higher Income Groups (HIG) and Middle Income Groups (MIG), at Raviryal near Shamshabad International Airport sometime ago, but is yet to pay about Rs 10 crore to the contractors. Similarly, construction of 290 HIG and MIG flats at Kukatpally Housing Board (KPHB) phase XV too is in doldrums with contractors stopping work, demanding their pend ing Rs 12 crore dues. Another project in Adilabad district is facing a similar fate.
Apart from the ongoing works, payments for com pleted works have also been stopped. A housing project with 170 HIG and another 167 MIG houses including inter nal amenities was completed at Devarakonda in Nalgonda district in January , 2015. The THB has not released Rs 4.5 crore to the contractors de spite their repeated requests o the state government.
Officials said the board employees were receiving salaries once every two to three months with the high court's permission as the case between the two departments is pending before the court. In all, a total of Rs 30 crore pending bills are yet to be paid to contractors since this January .
The board has been fighting a case against the I-T department with the latter demanding a payment of Rs 900 crore as tax on the revenue it had earned through land auctions between 200506 and 2008-09.
"Our stand is that the government agencies, which have been implementing the government schemes do not fall under the tax net. The amount earned through land auctions by the erstwhile APHB were utilized for taking up welfare schemes initiated by the then state government," a senior official of the state housing department told TOI.
With pressure mounting from the allottees and contractors, the government recently sent housing department secretary Dana Kishore to Chennai to consult senior lawyer and tax counsel Arvind P Datar on how to deal with the issue.
Source: Times of India
