The Maharashtra government has increased the 'scrutiny charge' that developers of residential projects will be required to pay for clearance from the environment committee. This scrutiny charge will be decided by the project's total cost and will be ultimately passed on to home buyers.

The state environment department has issued a circular, according to which the scrutiny charge for projects costing between ₹1 - 50 crores will be ₹1.50 lacs (as opposed to the earlier charge of ₹1 lac).

For projects costing between ₹50 - 100 crores, the charge will be ₹4 lacs.

For projects costing between ₹100 - 500 crores, developers will have to pay ₹7 lacs as scrutiny charge.

₹15 lacs will be the scrutiny charge for projects costing between ₹500 - 1000 crores, while ₹20 lacs will be the charge for projects beyond ₹1000 crores.

However, developers are not happy with the move as this is only one among the other charges and taxes they are obliged to pay. While the rise in scrutiny charge is little, it will still pinch the developers, said Manohar Shroff, vice-president of Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry, Navi Mumbai.

Source: DNA, 7^th June, 2018