President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said that the government is committed to provide housing to all citizens, including the poorest of the poor, by the year 2022, adding that several measures have been taken towards the fulfilment of the same.
"Housing is a fundamental requirement for dignified living. My government is steadfast in fulfilling the aspirations of all households, particularly the poorest of the poor, to have a dwelling unit under the mission 'Housing for All' by 2022, marking 75 years of our independence," the President said.
"A set of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives have been devised to leverage the value of land holding with government and to afford flexibility to state governments in designing their own customized housing programmes. To aid investment in housing sector, my government has liberalized FDI policy; increased tax incentives for housing loans and enhanced the corpus of National Housing Bank," he added.
The Budget Session of the Parliament began shortly after President Mukherjee's joint address to both Houses of the Parliament.
The Budget Session contains 44 items of financial, legislative and non-legislative business.
The first part of the Budget Session will continue till March 20 while the second part will commence after a month-long break from April 20 and conclude on May 8.
The Rail Budget will be presented on February 26, Economic Survey on February 27 and General Budget on February 28.