The Fitch Ratings 2011 outlook for the Indian real estate sector seems to contradict itself. While it says the realty market is stable in the year, it also warns of a negative bias. The negative forecast of Fitch Ratings is, however, based more on the sentiments than the emerging market reality.
In the immediate aftermath of the bribes for loan scam involving LIC Housing Finance, the Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in conjunction with Dept of Financial Services asked for a complete monitoring of all the companies mentioned in the CBI case filed. All public sector banks, financial institutions and state owned insurance companies have been asked to examine their exposure to the 21 companies named by CBI in the housing loan scam, and give a subsequent compliance report.
The CBI investigation into the 2G spectrum scam is learnt to have zeroed on how lobbyist Nira Radia and former telecom minister A Raja circumvented all the norms to benefit the real estate company Unitech. The loss caused to the public exchequer and corresponding gain to the realty company is not confined to mere arbitrary granting of second-generation mobile telephony licenses.
While the foreign direct investment flows (FDI) dependent Indian realty market is awaiting a good fortune, a World Bank report brings cheer to the industry. It says the FDI into developing countries including India is expected to recover over the next couple of years and is projected to increase by 17 per cent in 2010.
The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India has expressed concern over “painting” the ‘loan-for-bribe’ as a scam. It says such negative projection would lead to drastic reduction in credit for real estate companies.
India has 105 operational (21,214 hectares) and another 631 Special Economic Zones (SEZs) under various stages of approval (see DTZ report on ‘SEZs in India’ June 2010). These zones are the only tax havens in India after the likely expiry of STPI/EOU scheme in March 2011 and have seen healthy interest from occupiers as well as developers. The new Direct Taxes Code (DTC 2010) bill, proposes to alter the tax framework of SEZs.