 "Venkaiah Naidu")
Referring to the social media campaign by consumers and potential home buyers seeking early passage of the Real Estate Bill, Naidu urged all concerned to enable its early passage, as it aims at promoting consumer confidence and the credibility of the real estate sector.
"All the issues raised by opposition have been addressed. The Bill has gone to the Standing Committee and Select Committee. I don't think there is any problem whatsoever," he said.
Various tax concessions and reliefs announced would go a long way in meeting the long-standing demand of the construction sector. "The housing and construction sector has been given infrastructure status in the Budget for 2016-17, even without being formally declared so," Naidu said.
The Budget has also proposed several concrete measures to enable flow of investments into affordable housing.
Despite the focus of the Budget on agriculture and rural development, the urban sector has also got its due. As against the increase of 15 per cent in the total Central Plan Outlay for 2016-17 over Revised Estimates for the current fiscal, Plan Outlay for the urban sector has been increased by 55 per cent. The share of urban sector in the total Central Plan Outlay for the current fiscal and the next fiscal remained at about 5 per cent. About Rs 21,000 crore was allocated to the Urban Development Ministry, while Housing and Poverty Alleviation got Rs 5,400 crore.
To promote rental housing, which meets the needs of migrants and those who can't afford to build a house, the deduction limit has been increased by Rs 36,000, from the present Rs 24,000 to Rs 60,000.
"Other announcements like modernisation and digitisation of land records, facilitating ease of doing business and further liberalisation of FDI conditions would also go a long way in channeling much desired investments into the housing sector, including affordable housing," Naidu said.
According to the Budget proposals, several concrete steps are being taken to ensure flow of investments into affordable housing and construction. These measures include introduction of Public Utility (Resolution of Disputes) Bill later this year to streamline institutional arrangements for resolution of disputes in infrastructure related construction projects, PPP and public utility contracts.
A new credit rating system for infrastructure projects with emphasis on in-built credit enhancement structures has been put in place. It does away with relying upon a standard perception of risk, which often result in mispriced loans. Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) will set up a dedicated fund to provide credit enhancement to infrastructure projects.
