TGRERA slaps Rs. 35 cr penalty on 1K projects

Hyderabad: The Telangana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (TGRERA) aimed at regulating the promoters of real estate agencies and providing relief to the buyers has imposed a penalty of Rs 35 crore on over 1,000 real estate projects of various companies and collected Rs 15 crore since its inception in 2018.

The Telangana government started TGRERA in the year 2018 after the Centre introduced the RERA Act to regulate and promote the real estate sector in the country. The objective was to protect home buyers, ensure timely project completion, establish a regulatory framework and streamline processes for developers.

Since the inception of TGRERA, the regulating agency has imposed penalties on over 1,013 projects and the penal amount was Rs 35.75 crore during the last seven years. The RERA has collected Rs 15.01 crore as a penalty from the erring real estate promoters.

During the initial year 2018-19, the agency imposed a penalty of Rs 3 crore on 335 projects. During the second year, the agency imposed a penalty of over Rs 79 lakh on 49 projects. There were just seven projects during the two years of Covid in 2020 and 2021.

However, after this the agency imposed a penalty of Rs 1.7 crore on 180 projects in 2022-23 and in the year 2023-24, the penalty was over Rs 26 crore on 311 projects. This was the time when senior official N Satyanarayana took over as the Chairman of RERA. Even in the current year 2024-25, the agency imposed a penalty of Rs 2.9 crore on 131 projects so far.

When asked about the measures being taken to protect the interests of the buyers, Satyanarayana said that steps were being taken to strictly enforce the provisions of RERA to bring transparency, protect the interest of home buyers and ensure resolution of disputes between consumers and builders and promoters.

He said that Telangana was a state with a sizable urban population where balanced development and regulation in the real estate sector was required. All real estate promoters working across the state must register their projects with TGRERA and fulfill the responsibility of safeguarding the interest of stakeholders, especially home buyers, by following the RERA Act and Rules.

The promoters cannot cancel the allotment on their own and it should be done as per agreement. There has to be agreement even if 10 per cent of the project is sold. The promoter should upload the symmetry of information and case details. RERA can take action even if the promoters give advertisements without registration, he added.