Thursday, June 18, 2015

Union cabinet clears flagship ‘Housing for All’ programme : Hindustan Times

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet approved “Housing for All”, the NDA govt’s flagship programme of building two crore houses by 2022. Aiming to promote affordable housing, the Cabinet approved a substantial increase in interest subsidy on housing loans — from 4% to 6.50% — for those from the economically weaker sections (EWS) and low-income groups (LIG). 

The Union cabinet on Wednesday approved “Housing for All”, the NDA government’s flagship programme of building two crore houses by 2022. The scheme is piloted by the housing and urban poverty alleviation ministry.

Aiming to promote affordable housing, the cabinet approved a substantial increase in interest subsidy on housing loans — from 4% to 6.50% — for those from the economically weaker sections (EWS) and low-income groups (LIG). This would bring down the EMIs (equated monthly installments) on housing loans down to ` 4,050 per month, benefiting the urban poor by ` 2,582 per month.

Overall, the Centre will provide assistance from `1 lakh to' 2.3 lakh per beneficiary under different components of the programme, which will be taken up in each of the 4,041 cities and towns. Initially, 500 cities, with a population of one lakh and above each and accounting for about 75% of urban population, will be covered.

“Houses of up to 30 square metre carpet area would be built with basic civic and social infrastructure,” said a ministry official. The ministry has said that registration of houses under the scheme would either be in the names of women, or jointly in the name of a wife and her husband.

A 2012 government report said, India has an estimated housing shortage of 18.78 million, of which over 95% is in the EWS and LIG categories. This shortage may increase to 30 million by 2022. CENTRE HIKES MSP FOR PULSES AND PADDY The Centre on Wednesday hiked the minimum support price for pulses by up to ` 275 a quintal for the year and also approved an increase of ` 50 in MSP for paddy.

The MSP for paddy will now be ` 1,410 per quintal. Hikes in MSP are known to help farmers, which in turn can incentivize them and boost agricultural output.

The Cabinet Commitee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the decision.

MSP is the rate at which the government undertakes to buy farmers’ produce to avert distress sales, though in practice it ends up becoming the same as the procurement price, which should ideally be higher.

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