Skip to main content

Cabinet hikes carpet area for affordable housing, higher demand seen

 Cabinet hikes carpet area for affordable housing, higher demand seen
The decision could help homebuyers access bigger, ready-tomove-in houses at lower costs.
In some good news for builders and middle-class homebuyers, the Union cabinet increased the carpet area of houses under the government’s affordable housing scheme on Thursday.
The decision could help homebuyers access bigger, ready-to-move-in houses at lower costs, while developers with large inventories could look forward to renewed demand, triggering a virtuous cycle of employment generation and economic growth.
The tweaks to the NDA government’s flagship housing programme—pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Pmay)—follows requests from the industry which was saddled with thousands of flats that had margin- ally bigger carpet areas than allowed under the scheme.
In the first middle income category (Rs6-12 lakh/annum), the carpet area was raised from 90 to 120 sq. m (968 sq. ft - 1184 sq. ft).In the income category of Rs12-18 lakh/annum, the carpet area was increased from 110 sq. m to 150 sq. mt (1291 sq. ft – 1614 sq. ft).The eligibility criteria and interest subsidies on loans remain unchanged.
“The increase in carpet area will enable individuals under the MIG category to have a wider choice in developers’ projects. It will give a boost to the sale of ready built flats in the affordable housing segment,” Union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Puri told journalists.
The mushrooming of private developers from 2007 to 2013 saw landowners turn real estate companies.The obvious fall out was incomplete projects, and a breakdown of consumer and investor confidence. But realty majors said that RERA has added a positive dimension to the sector.The affordable housing sector was given a shot in the arm by the government in its budget this year, as it gave it the status of infrastructure.
This allowed tax holidays and easier access to credit for developers in this segment.“Consumer sentiment for affordable homes has been on a rise from the past three quarters with the benefits of the changes in the real estate sector bearing fruit,” said Brotin Banerjee, chief executive officer (CEO) and MD, Tata Housing. With the changes, the cost of a house will go up but Sriram Kalyanaraman, managing director (MD) and CEO of National Housing Bank (NHB), told HT that it would still be affordable for the MIG category.
“In a city like Aurangabad, a person with a salary of Rs12 lakh can easily get a loan of Rs40 lakh. With that he can easily afford to buy a house of 1184 sq. ft,” said Kalyanaraman who heads NHB, the regulator for all housing finance compa- nies. PMAY was initially targeted to benefit those with incomes up to Rs6 lakh a year.Last December, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced expanded its ambit to include the middle-classes till December 2017.But in September, the government extended the scheme for the category to March 2019.
The Union finance ministry had allocated 1,000 crore under the programme. The ministry intends to target 50,000 people under the scheme in 2017-18.“Now we will be able comfortably provide a two-bedroom house in the MIG category, the benefits under the infrastructure category that developers get will be passed on to the homebuyers,” said Pradeep Jain, founder chairman, Parsvnath Group.

The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 13th June 2018

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New income tax slab and rates for new tax regime FY 2023-24 (AY 2024-25) announced in Budget 2023

  Basic exemption limit has been hiked to Rs.3 lakh from Rs 2.5 currently under the new income tax regime in Budget 2023. Further, the income tax slabs in the new tax regime has been changed. According to the announcement, 5 income tax slabs will be there in FY 2023-24, from 6 income tax slabs currently. A rebate under Section 87A has been enhanced under the new tax regime; from the current income level of Rs.5 lakh to Rs.7 lakh. Thus, individuals opting for the new income tax regime and having an income up to Rs.7 lakh will not pay any taxes   The income tax slabs under the new income tax regime will now be as follows: Rs 0 to Rs 3 lakh - 0% tax rate Rs 3 lakh to 6 lakh - 5% Rs 6 lakh to 9 lakh - 10% Rs 9 lakh to Rs 12 lakh - 15% Rs 12 lakh to Rs 15 lakh - 20% Above Rs 15 lakh - 30%   The revised Income tax slabs under new tax regime for FY 2023-24 (AY 2024-25)   Income tax slabs under new tax regime Income tax rates under new tax regime O to Rs 3 lakh 0 Rs 3 lakh to Rs 6 lakh 5% Rs 6

Jaitley plans to cut MSME tax rate to 25%

Income tax for companies with annual turnover up to ?50 crore has been reduced to 25% from 30% in order to make Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) companies more viable and also to encourage firms to migrate to a company format. This move will benefit 96% or 6.67 lakh of the 6.94 lakh companies filing returns of lower taxation and make MSME sector more competitive as compared with large companies. However, bigger firms have shown their disappointment since the proposal for reducing tax rates was to make Indian firms competitive globally and it is the large firms that are competing globally. The Finance Minister foregone revenue estimate of Rs 7,200 crore per annum for this for this measure. Besides, the Finance Minister refrained from removing or reducing Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT), a popular demand from India Inc., but provided a higher period of 15 years for carry forward of future credit claims, instead of the existing 10-year period. “It is not practical to rem

Don't forget to verify your income tax return in August: Here's the process

  An ITR return needs to be verified within 120 days of filing of tax return. Now that you have filed your income tax return, remember to verify it because your return filing process is not complete unless you do so. The CBDT has reduced the time limit of ITR verification to 30 days (from 120 days) from the date of return submission. The new rule is applicable for the returns filed online on or after 1st August 2022. E-verification is the most convenient and instant method for verifying your ITR. However, if you prefer not to e-verify, you have the option to verify it by sending a physical copy of the ITR-V. Taxpayers who filed returns by July 31, 2023 but forget to verify their tax returns, will get the following email from the tax department, as per ClearTax. If your ITR is not verified within 30 days of e-filing, it will be considered invalid, and may be liable to pay a Late Fee. Aadhaar OTP | EVC through bank account | EVC through Demat account | Sending duly signed ITR-V through s