‘Will be back with more,’ promises Nirmala Sitharaman after 20 announcements

“I will come back soon armed with a decision to solve homebuyers’ problems,” Nirmala Sitharaman said, acknowledging the magnitude of the distress.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said her government was close to taking a decision to alleviate the pain of homebuyers in limbo due to pending housing projects in the National Capital Region (NCR). Sitharaman’s assurance came during her press conference in New Delhi on Friday where she listed out measures being taken by the government to address economic slowdown and increase the ease of doing business.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said her government was close to taking a decision to alleviate the pain of homebuyers in limbo due to pending housing projects in the National Capital Region (NCR).(Mohd Zakir/HT PHOTO)

“I will come back soon armed with a decision to solve homebuyers’ problems,” she said acknowledging the magnitude of the distress. The solution, currently under contemplation was being prepared keeping the problems in the National Capital Region but will also have a bearing on Mumbai, she said.

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“On the home buyers, we have had consultations, particularly for home buyers who have problems in the NCR and therefore it will also have a bearing in Mumbai, where a lot of homebuyers have paid there advances and are sitting knowing not what to do and promoters are sitting with no money to further their projects,” the finance minister said, while spelling out the nature of the crisis.

Sitharaman’s promise is likely to be music to the years of hundreds of thousands of homebuyers in NCR who have not got possession either due to builders abandoning projects or delaying possession.

“We have had discussions and are we close to coming to a decision. I have not introduced that today in this presentation, but sooner I will be able to come to you separately about home buyers,” she said.

Finance minister’s Friday address was only the first in a series planned to address other concerns related to her ministry, Sitharaman indicated that her department was working on several other announcements aimed to boost economy in near future.

“This is only a start. I do not want worries to remain; we are continuously consulting with people, we are taking their inputs and responding to them,” Sitharaman said, adding that sometime in the middle of the next week she will return with more announcements to take care of “other issues that are pending”.