New Delhi: The government’s proposed housing scheme for the urban poor and middle-class population will benefit people living in slums, rented homes and unregulated colonies, said Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
In an interview, the finance minister said that the modalities of the proposed scheme are being worked out and the departments concerned will look into all aspects including the eligibility criteria of intended beneficiaries for the scheme.
“The departments will work on it. The broad classification which was already announced by the prime minister was, those who are living in rented houses, those who are living in chawls, those who are living in unregulated colonies, will all be covered,” she said.
The plan to come up with a new housing scheme comes as the ongoing urban housing scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), or PMAY (Urban), is set to end in December.
Sitharaman, however, said that the new scheme would be different from the ongoing PMAY (Urban) scheme.
The announcement to launch a new housing scheme for the urban poor was first made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech last year, when he said that the government would come up with a scheme to provide relief in home loans to the urban poor and middle-class people.
“If they want to build their own houses, we will assist them with relief in interest rates and loans from banks that will help them save lakhs of rupees,” Modi had said.
The new programme will effectively be an interest subvention scheme wherein home buyers will get loans at lower interest rates, Union minister for housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri had said in August.
Loans at lower interest rates were also provided under the credit-linked subsidy scheme (CLSS) for the economically weaker section (EWS) or lower income group (LIG) categories under PMAY (Urban). The CLSS, however, ended in March 2022. The PMAY (Urban), which has, apart from CLSS, verticals such as in-situ slum redevelopment, beneficiary-led construction, and affordable housing in partnership, will end in December 2024.
Under CLSS, the government used to provide benefit of up to ₹2.67 lakh through interest subsidy of 3.0-6.5%.
The announcement in the budget is in line with the government’s larger ‘Housing for All’ mission, which also includes the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin), apart from PMAY (Urban). Under PMAY (Urban), 11.8 million houses have been sanctioned so far out of which 8 million houses have been completed. Further, under the PMAY (Gramin), which is implemented by the Union ministry of rural development, more than 29.4 million houses have been sanctioned, and out of them 25 million houses were completed till the end of November 2023, according to the ministry.
Presenting the interim budget, the finance minister on 1 February also said that the target of 30 million houses being built under the PMAY (Gramin) scheme is close to being achieved. Another 20 million houses will be taken up in the next five years, to meet the housing demand arising from an increase in the number of families, she said.
An amount of ₹80,671 crore has been budgeted for PMAY in FY25, out of which ₹26,170.61 crore has been allocated for PMAY (Urban) and ₹54,500.14 crore for PMAY (Gramin).
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Published: 05 Feb 2024, 09:30 AM IST