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Virendra Pandit

Mortgage fees levy by Kandla Port Trust

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Ahmedabad Feb 13 The five-decade-old Gandhidham Chamber of Commerce and Industry today took out a rally against the levy of mortgage fees by the Kandla Port Trust (KPT) for issuance of no-objection certificate to lessees to avail of financial assistance from banks against mortgage of leasehold plots to construct residential and commercial buildings.

After the peace march, the Chamber President, Mr Babubhai Ahir, presented a flower to Mr Janardan Rao, Chairman of KPT, to register protest against mortgage fees in a Gandhian way.

The Gandhidham Chamber had earlier represented its case to the Union Ministry of Shipping to scrap the mortgage fees on the township land.

Chamber sources said that the KPT, which used to charge only Rs 100 irrespective of loan amount, had enhanced it in April 2004 and again in April 2006.

The port neither lends any amount to lessees nor does it stand as guarantor to avail of the financial assistance.

When no lease rights are transferred, the fee for merely issuance of an NOC was unlawful, a chamber spokesman said.

The "exorbitant" mortgage fee has hampered the industrialisation process in the region. While the Government has, on one hand, offered incentives to industrialists and entrepreneurs to set up units in Kutch after the 2001 earthquake, the mortgage fees have had a negative impact on the region's growth.

If industrialists have to part with a sizeable sum for such administrative work alone, the very spirit of incentives allowed by the Government is defeated, the spokesman said.

The region produces about 70 per cent of the total requirement of edible and industrial salt for the country and the salt manufacturing pans of Kandla have also been covered under the scope of enhanced mortgage fees.

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Chamber takes out peace march against levy of mortgage fees

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