Will the Minister of HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS be pleased to state:
(a) whether due to rising prices of land and construction cost, the poor people are not getting due benefits despite flexible housing loans being offered by the banks and if so, the details thereof;
(b) whether the Government has taken or proposes to take any steps for providing affordable housing especially to the poor people by the year 2022;
(c) if so, the details thereof; and
(d) the progress made so far in this regard?
THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE)OFTHE MINISTRY OF HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS
(SHRI HARDEEP SINGH PURI)
(a) : Ministry of Finance, Department of Financial Services has informed that unit-wise data analysis of outstanding individual housing loans submitted by the Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) and Public Sector Banks (PSBs) to NHB, reveals that the outstanding individual housing loans upto ?10 lakh have grown by Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of over 5% during the period 2015-16 to 2017-18. Further, as on 31-03-2018, the unit-wise outstanding individual housing loans upto ?10 lakh constituted about 51% of the unit-wise total outstanding individual housing loan portfolio of HFCs and PSBs.
(b)to (d)Government of India has launched Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Housing for All (Urban) mission on 25th June, 2015 which aims to assist the States / ULBs for providing housing for all eligible families / beneficiaries among the urban poor by 2022. The mission comprises four components viz in-situ slum redevelopment; affordable housing through credit-linked subsidy; affordable housing in partnership; and subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction.
The Government has taken the following steps aimed to provide houses to the common man at affordable price:
(i) Various fiscal incentives have been provided under section 80- IBA of the Income Tax Act, which provides for 100% deduction of profits and gains for Affordable Housing projects.
(ii) Affordable Housing has been accorded Infrastructure Status by including it in the Harmonised List of Infrastructure. This is to ensure low cost, long term and enhanced resource flow for affordable housing.
(iii) GST Council has lowered the effective GST rate from 12% to 8% (after deducting one third of the amount charged for the house toward cost of land) for all the houses constructed under PMAY(U).
(iv) In pursuance of Budget 2018-19, a separate dedicated Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) has been setup in National Housing Bank (NHB). This fund will facilitate refinancing for Private Lending Institutions (PLIs) under (i) beneficiary-led individual house construction or enhancement under PMAY (U) and (ii) construction of affordable housing projects.
Under the PMAY(U) mission, a total of 13,571 projects of 4,313 cities in 35 States/UTs have been accepted for construction of 65,43,970 Economically Weaker Section (EWS) houses with Central share of Rs.1,00,271.38 Crores of which Rs.33,364.90 crores has been released.
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