The blow of loan scam comes at a time when the realty industry had started showing signs of recovery in demand.
Realty sector is the most affected after the CBI busted the loan scam. Last week, the Central Bureau of Investigation had booked the officials of reputed banks in this scam. CBI says that the problem was detected a year ago when the special economic team found out the major fluctuations in stock market.
People are arrested by CBI, CEO of LIC housing finance Ramachandran Nair; Naresh K Chopra, Secretary (Investment), LIC; R N Tayal, General Manager of Bank of India (Delhi); Maninder Singh Johar, Director (Chartered Accountant) of Central Bank of India; Gujjal and Dy General Manager of Punjab National Bank (Delhi); Rajesh Sharma, CMD of Mumbai-based firm Money Matters Ltd and two of its employees — Suresh Gattani and Sanjay Sharma—were among those arrested.
Although after this revelation LIC officials have said that the shareholders of LIC need not panic and their money is safe.
While, the experts and customers think that the prices in the realty sector are expected to go down by about 11% and the scenario would continue to prevail for 2011 and may stretch to the first quarter of 2012, the Finance ministry says that this is not a scam and the money of the commoners are safe and they need not panic.
In another lead, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on November 29 said it is examining 11 complaints against a few real estate companies related to anti-competitive practices, involving bank officials and realty firms.
CCI chairman Dhanendra Kumar said that of the 137 cases that they are handling, 11 pertain to the real estate sector. He also confirmed that complaints have been received under sections 3 and 4 of the Competition Act 2002, which deal with anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominant position, respectively.
A number of real estate companies such as Lavasa, DB Realty and Adani are already under CBI’s scanner in the housing loan bribery scam. The CCI has also sought explanation from private companies who benefited from an alleged cross-country scam.
M/S Lavasa, Pashmina Ltd, Mantri Realty, Sigrun Ltd, Entertainment World, Indore City Treasures, Ashapura Minechem , BGR Energy, OPG Group, Adani, J P Hydro, J S W Power, Pantaloon, Adalite and MTECH are among the beneficiary companies.
