The Government is planning to hand over the task of maintaining, managing and earning revenue from immovable properties attached in money laundering cases to the National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC).
Sources said that at a meeting chaired by Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, officials of the Ministry of Finance, Enforcement Directorate chief Karnal Singh and NBCC Chairman-cum-Managing Director Anoop Kumar Mittal, the issue of maintaining, renting and auctioning of such properties was discussed.
The proposal to mandate NBCC to do the job was at the behest of the ED and mooted by the finance ministry about six months ago.
It was felt that lack of proper maintenance led to decay of the properties and the agency had to continuously spend on their upkeep, sources explained.
The meeting to discuss ways to better manage properties seized, frozen or confiscated under the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMlA), including those belonging to fugitive businessmen Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, was held on March 13.
As of now, the ED manages the properties confiscated by it but does not have experience in how to do so and there is no provision under PMlA for rental to earn revenue, sources said.
The proposal is to manage the seized land, which can often measure several thousand acres, as well as numerous factories, flats, buildings and shops taken over by the ED, they added.