Breather for cooperative housing societies as AGMs & audit deadlines extended due to the back log because of Covid- Mumbai

According to housing society federations several societies took longer time this year to clear their audit for earlier fiscal 2020-21 due to Covid and thus had a backlog for recently ended fiscal 2021-22 to be cleared yet.

MUMBAI: Over 65,000 cooperative housing societies across Mumbai metro region have been offered extra time by the state government to hold their AGMs till December 31 and audit submissions till Oct 31.

The last date for AGMs and audit submission for the recently ended fiscal 2021-22 was set as September 30 which the Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association (MahaSeWA), a federation of cooperative societies in the state, wanted to be extended till the end of this year so that auditors and societies could get enough time to complete delayed accounting procedure without much hassles.

About only 25% societies have submitted their accounts so far with a many still remaining to complete the required formalities according to experts lookout.

Majority societies are already struggling hard to get their deemed conveyance (land title transfer to society from builder) and redevelopment approvals that have been stuck due to legal complexities and the red tape besides issues related to lack of unanimity among members, fee escalations, fights for nominations, titles and maintenance, and alleged corruption.

Poor performance of website in accepting audits online, lack of enthusiasm among administrators, lack of accountability in the process, and overloaded registrars who have to handle 2000 societies each are some of the other reasons that are leading to delays, say activists

In the absence of deemed conveyance the land ownership of housing societies is still in the hands of builders who rent out terraces to cell tower and advertisement companies, besides selling or using parking, TDRs and FSIs to earn money.

Since conveyance and redevelopment had to go through multiple state government departments, they were taking much longer time, say cooperative activists however pointing out that conveyance proposals were getting cleared faster after reaching the consumer court.

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