New Delhi, March 2 (KNN) The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has urged the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to not increase the circle rates which has been speculated to be increased by 30 per cent.

Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General, CAIT said, "At a time when the trade in Delhi is yet to recover from huge losses due to three spells of covid-19 in past two years and having a great slump in real estate, any attempt to increase the circle rate of properties in Delhi shall become counter-productive to the development of Delhi.”

“It is to be noted that currently, there is a 20 per cent discount on circle rates applicable on different categories. It is yet to be clarified whether the increase will be on a discounted rate or the original rate. If it's on the original rate then 30 per cent increase will amount to 62.5 per cent on discounted rate which will be too high. However, in both the cases, the increase in circle rates is going to affect adversely the people of Delhi,” said CAIT in a press release.

Opposing any such move, Khandelwal said that covid-19 pandemic has eaten all savings of not only the traders but even the working class and that of the common man of Delhi because of less inflow but high outflow of money.

He said that circle rates in a few categories are higher than the actual market rate of the properties and the market rates are notional as there are no buyers of real estate wealth in Delhi due to financial crunch being faced by all sections of the people.

The real estate market has not improved in the last many years resulting into blockage of capital in projects either in construction stage or even built but no takers of the properties as large number of properties, flats are lying vacant waiting for the buyers, he added.

Khandelwal has warned that any increase in the circle rates will go against the interest of people of Delhi and that too at a time when everyone is trying to come out from the drastic period of covid.

Circle rate is the minimum price at which a property has to be registered. They are guidelines designated by the government and vary from state to state. The Delhi government decides the circle rate for Delhi. (KNN Bureau)