Budget 2015: “Roof for Each Family by 2022”

Working towards building about 2 crore housing units in urban areas and about 4 crore housing units in the rural areas.

One of the important steps taken by the present central government during the fiscal year 2014-15 was the “Housing for all by 2022”. The scheme was focused on providing affordable housing for every family in the country. Elaborating on this scheme in the budget presented today for the year 2015-16, the Union Finance Minister added few more details. The government has allocated Rs 22,407 crore for taking measures in housing and urban development across the country in 2015-16. Some of the key points for the “Housing for all” scheme include

• Creating about 2 crore housing units in urban areas and about 4 crore housing units in the rural areas. This will reduce the huge supply demand gap
• Provide basic facilities such as 24 hrs power, clean drinking water, toilets and roads to improve infrastructure.
• One member in family would get a job. Jobs to be created through the “Make in India” initiative by the present government.

However, the finance minister did not provide much clarity and details about the implementation of the scheme during the coming years.

Housing for all by 2022

Housing for all by 2022 was a dream initiative of the Prime Minister of India to provide affordable housing for all families in the country by the year 2022. The government had also allocated Rs 4,000 crore to the National Housing Bank (NHB) for housing for the urban poor as well as Rs 8,000 crore to enable rural housing.

The housing for all initiative included the urban poor, economically weaker sections (EWS) and low-income groups (LIG). It was also proposed that residential projects that would commit at least 30 per cent of total project cost towards affordable housing would be exempted from constraints of minimum built up area and capitalisation requirements, with the condition of a three-year lock-in period.

There were also several steps taken up by the government in order to implement this initiative such as tax rebates to encourage house purchase, initiatives to make foreign direct investments (FDI) simpler to flow into the country in the construction centre.

CommonFloor verdict: A great step in the right direction. Though clarity still await!