Received today..

Message to the British community from the British High Commission, New Delhi

As a number of you have suggested, elections in Goa and long running campaigns beforehand all but cut us off from any contact with the Government of Goa. We had on numerous occasions requested a meeting with the Chief Minister, but these never happened. This was exacerbated by the fact that Joint Secretary Kishore, who has been advising the Enforcement Department on its investigations, left his post, not to be immediately replaced. With no traction here, we decided not to call another Town Hall as we would have had nothing new to share with you all.

Fortunately this has now passed, new people have been appointed and we have been able to re-engage with the key Goan officials.

We met with the new Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Parrikar, in June this year and raised, amongst others, the issue of property, which continues to understandably cause you a considerable amount of uncertainty and distress. The meeting was extremely encouraging. Mr Parrikar was fully aware of the issue, and during the course of the discussion, commented that he saw no reason why a large number of the cases should not be processed more expeditiously, recognising that the Enforcement Directorate and the Government of Goa had a duty to carry out their investigations within the timeline mandated by the rules and to keep those being investigated informed of progress made.

Mr Parrikar also offered to make a recommendation on cases where you have clearly bought small apartments as holiday or retirement homes, using funds acquired legally. This does not for now, include properties involving agricultural land or business.

If your purchase falls within the Chief Minister’s criteria, we encourage you to fill in the following proforma and email to Diana Joseph ([email protected]), thereby giving us permission to share the details of your case with the Chief Minister.

We also met with the new Additional Secretary Finance (Budget) Mr Anand Sherkhane (Mr Anupam Kishore’s successor) on the same issue, and will be taking the matter forward now that the assembly session has finished.

On the issue of x-visas, we continue to lobby both the Foreign and Home Ministries, but to no avail. Most recently I sat down with the Additional Secretary for Consular Affairs at the MEA who understood the problem and invited me to flesh out the issue in a letter. We’re now chasing for a response.

Lastly, the new High Commissioner, Sir James Bevan, is eager to meet the British community and as of now is looking to call a Town Hall in either early November or the beginning of 2013, whichever will ensure as many of you can be there to meet him.

I hope this gives you all some assurance that, despite the lack of communication on our part, we have not been sitting on our hands, and look forward to receiving a large number of proformas from you.

Kind regards,

Simon Ferrand

Consul

British High Commission, New Delhi

This is the link to the proforma Simon mentioned in his statement above. He suggests we fill it in irrespective of whether we have done one before.

I'm certainly going to give this a go. It's an opportunity to find out whether the new Goa government is serious about resolving this issue.

http://ukinindia.fco.gov.uk/resource...heet-Goa090610

Hope the link works. I can't tell until I post it.

Hi,
the link works for me - you will need Microsoft Word* to open the document and/or save it to a file. It downloads as read-only but iirc you have to change the name and save the file to make it editable.

AndyD 8-)₹

* or Open Office or a Word reader program.

Eligibility Criteria for completing new Proformas

I have collated a number of enquiries I received regarding the eligibility criteria to submit proformas (see paras 4 and 5 of BHC statement) and sent them to BHC. Here’s Simon’s response:

I don’t have precise answers to all your questions but, given the refreshing change of attitude my inclination is to encourage as many people as possible to send in their proformas.

Q. Definition of business?
A. I think for now property purchased on agricultural land should be excluded. However, those bought via a business should be included. I took this description as being people buying property for the purpose of doing it up and re-selling it i.e. making a business out of selling property. I think we should also encourage people who have bought a property from which they are running a business i.e. guest house/hotel/shop/spa etc.

Q. Apartments – to include rowhouses and properties on small holiday type developments?
A. I would be inclined to include all these categories as I would see these as “modestly sized” properties. This is certainly how I interpreted the Chief Minister’s comments.

Q. The proforma is headed “for people living in Goa”
A. Anyone who has bought or is leasing a property, irrespective of how much of the year they spend in Goa should be encouraged to complete the pro-forma. I don’t have the papers with me (I’m on holiday in the UK right now) but, if memory serves me right we chose to use the words “living in Goa” to drive home the message to the Goan authorities that we were talking about people’s primary homes.

On the timing of the town hall, we will certainly give as much notice as possible (we’ll need to as the High Commissioner’s diary fills up quickly!) and then, as you suggest, announce the venue much nearer the time.

If asked if people should send a proforma if they sent one a while back, I would suggest they simply send it in again as this will make it much easier for Diana to pull them all together.
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Simon will not have access to his email address until 28th August and suggests that any further qs. on the proforma are still sent in. I cant get hold of Noni at the moment, but no doubt she will be collating the qs posted on the website. Sending a second form will give us an opportunity to update on more recent difficulties.

Just a personal note – Special thanks to Simon for taking the time out on his UK holiday to respond so quickly. I hope that the change in Goa’s administration will look sensibly at the stressful difficulties and harassment many Brits have faced over recent years and that we can all work towards pushing this issue forward.
Veri

Have received a mail from BHC today - Do please complete fresh proformas this year, even if you already completed them in the earlier round.
The new Consul succeeding Simon Ferand - Michaela Williamson, is taking an active interest in property issues and it's hoped that a Town Hall can be arranged early in Jan.

Given the interest shown by the new CM, we genuinely do have a fresh opportunity to help move these issues forward. Let's help them to help us!

Veri

Agree with Veritas and DaveM above.....
....if you still have property in Goa please complete a proforma and submit it.

This is probably the most promising things have ever been since the great Goa property swindle began......and is probably the best time to strike again.

Dread - x

Does that mean as well as the two copies already submitted (and not acknowledged) - the most recent being after the last meeting?

If so does that mean they've lost the old ones - if so - and I think I said this last time - that's a pretty poor show because not everyone who has already submitted will get this message.

AndyD

No I dont think so - Simon mentioned earlier that it is easier to pull them all together.
There's also the point that people have run into further difficulties since the last proforma and its also a platform to alert BHC and keep them updated. Totally agree about acknowledgement and will mention that in my reply to BHC with other feedback. I think it will help to get them completed this time, but we need to work together with BHC after this round to see if there are easier ways of dealing with this and how we can improve communications.
Veri

OK re-sent my pro-forma (last sent July 2012).

afaik the address is still: [email protected]

AndyD 8-)₹