Over 37L houses sanctioned for weaker sections in 2 years: Govt

In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Kaushal Kishore said, "During last two years, under the PMAY-U, 37.57 lakh houses were sanctioned for EWS under three verticals -- 'In-situ' Slum Redevelopment(ISSR), Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP) and Beneficiary Led individual house Construction or Enhancement (BLC), of which 28.99 lakh have been grounded for construction and 18.50 lakh houses have been completed." 

The Minister informed the upper house that besides, under Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) vertical of PMAY-U, 5.81 lakh EWS beneficiaries have availed the benefit of interest subsidy. 

"Under ISSR and AHP vertical of PMAY-U, private partnership is envisaged for construction of affordable houses for EWS category and under CLSS vertical interest subsidy is provided on housing loan," Kishore said. 

Kishore mentioned that in order to boost the affordable housing, the Union Government has taken various initiatives such as granting of infrastructure status to affordable housing to enable cheaper loan, reduction in Goods and Services Tax (GST) on under-construction affordable housing projects from eight percent to one percent without Input Tax Credit increase in priority sector lending for affordable housing project from Rs 28 lakh to Rs 35 lakh in metros and from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 25 lakh in non-metros, setting up of Affordable Housing Fund in National Housing Bank. 

The minister also informed that Union Government also providing additional income tax deduction of Rs 1.5 lakh on account of home loan interest in addition to the deduction of Rs 2 lakh for affordable housing, extension of 100 per cent deduction on profits for construction of affordable housing projects under section 80-IBA of the Income Tax Act till 31.03.2022 and widening the scope of section 80-IBA from 30 to 60 square meters in metro and 60 to 90 square meters in non-metro cities.