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The Core Committee of Intach, Hyderabad Chapter, in a
meeting held on 10.9.04, decided to prepare a set of
recommendations on Incentives to Owners of Heritage
Buildings to motivate them to conserve such buildings. A
small committee was set up for the purpose under the
convener ship of Dr. M. MandaI. The other members were Sri
M. Vedakumar, Sri Sushil Kumar, Sri Umapathy, and Shri
T.S.N.Rao Views were solicited from a number of other
persons. A paper was circulated among interested persons,
for information and views covering, inter alia.
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The
incentives currently available to owners of heritage
buildings, and the extent of their utilization.
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The
incentives granted at other centers like Mumbai,
Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Kolkata, etc., and also at some
foreign centers, say in some European countries,
Australia, to owners of heritage buildings.
-
Views
on what incentives should be given in addition to those
already given.
S/S Shravan Kumar, Sushil Kumar and Veda Kumar gave
written submissions. Discussions were held with Shri S.
Shorey of Huda. The observations and draft recommendations
of the committee was placed before a meeting of the Core
committee of Intach, Hyderabad Chapter on 11.3.05
2.0 The Committee made the following observations in
respect of the present situation:
2.1.
The only incentive available to an owner of a Heritage
Building (HB) is entitlement to TOR.
Present
Incentives are not adequate enough "to encourage the
owners to conserve.
2.2.
The cost of maintenance of a Heritage Building is high.
The private owners have meager resources and in many cases
belong to old families having no steady source of income.
It is difficult for them to maintain.
2.3.
They fall easy prey to the wiles of developers, without
regard for historicity/architectural grandeur of a
building - a bane of urbanization. There is tempting
opportunity to a private owner of an HB to hand over the
building to a Builder, for construction of multi-storied
complexes, under which scheme the owl"1er is adequately
recompensated.
2.4.
Finally, there is dearth of appropriate materials, skilled
repair workers, and availability of
advice
and guidance to an owner of an HB if he /she wishes the
building to be properly maintained / restored. Our scheme
of incentives needs to cover all these problems.
3.0 The following incentives were recommended.
3.1.
Reduction in Property tax, if not total exemption, of
heritage buildings. Kolkata State Convener of INTACH, in a
recent meeting with Mr. Shravankumar at New Delhi, said
Kolkata is considering similar relief for heritage
buildings. At Ahmedabad, reportedly, the Municipal
Corporation reduces house tax by 50% of the normal tax on
heritage buildings. While the loss to state government
revenue will be miniscule, the relief measure will release
funds to the owner, which he would have otherwise paid
toward taxes. More importantly, it will have a "salutary
psychological impact an the owners of heritage buildings
to conserve their building.
It
should, however, be stipulated by the respective municipal
corporation that the availability of such relief will be
subject to review and would depend on the state of
maintenance of the heritage building.
3.2.
Funds for
conservation of heritage buildings owned
by private
owners. The cost
of maintenance set apart a part of the
property taxes collected for Conservation of Heritage
Buildings. In Kerala, 50% of the House tax is proposed to
be set apart for Conservation of Heritage Buildings. Laws
and rules are yet to be notified. We can plan on similar
lines.
3.3.
Cash incentives with proper follow-up and review. In
extreme cases, provide cash incentives to the owners to
take up repairs and make the buildings suitable for
conservation, and use. Where cash incentives' are
provided, ensure adequate supervision by a team of
conservationists INT
ACH-to
playa big role. Formation of a Task Force would be an
integral part of any scheme for Restoration / Renovation
or Repair of an HB.
3.4. Subsidised
loans. Work out a scheme for loans at subsidised rates to
owners of heritage buildings for maintenance, repair,
conservation for use. At Ahmedabad, loans are provided
aflow interest at 5% P.A through HUDCO in collaboration
with Government of France. The Government of France bears
the difference of loan granted by HUDCO at 9.5% by bearing
a subsidy of-4.5%.
3.5.
Permit change of use (from say, residential to commercial)
of, Heritage Buildings. Commerdal use of heritage bui
Idings, such as motels, hotels, museums, etc., under
proper conservation of heritage value, will fetch
higher revenue to the owner
3.6.
Take the Heritage Buildings outside the purview-of the
Tenancy Act.
3.7. If a
Heritage Building is given on rent; the lease rent deed
should be exempt from stamp duty.
3.8.
When a Heritage Building is sold; the buyer should be
exempted from paying stamp duty on registration.
3.9.
Expenses incurred on maintenance of a Heritage Building
should be eligible for exemption from Income Tax.
3.10.
TOR should be made available to the lessee of a Heritage
Building. It will be appropriate if Intach can arrange for
providing the owners of heritage buildings technical
advice by experts on the maintenance of their buildings
and conservation works to be undertaken.
4.0
It was felt after
a lot of deliberations that the above incentive measures
would expand the market for sale and purchase of Heritage
Buildings, and to retain them as such, because of the
relief’s proposed. While, under the present regulation 13,
any buyer of a Heritage Building is bound to retain its
character as a Heritage Building, he will, if the proposed
reliefs are granted, find it profitable to invest in
buying a Heritage Building, and conserving it, and using
it while retaining its character as Heritage Building.
This will
also help in identifying additional buildings for listing
as Heritage Buildings, as many owners of old buildings may
come forward to apply for heritage status to their
buildings, because of the incentives.
5.0
Shri Shravan Kumar, Convenor of Intach Hyderabad Chapter,
addressed a letter containing the above recommendations to
the State Chief Secretary on 02.04.05.
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