Housing sector unhappy with state budget

Builders, developers unhappy about not getting any incentives, especially at a time when the sector is witnessing a slump

Despite the state government’s claim of working towards affordable housing, it did not make any mention about the real estate sector in the budget that was announced on Friday.

This has led to disappointment among builders, developers and those concerned with the sector. They blamed the government for meting out step motherly treatment towards the sector. “The state budget has been very disappointing budget . Despite contributing so much to the exchequer, we have been conveniently ignored,” said Anand Gupta, spokesperson, Builders Association of India (BAI).

Similarly, Shadaab Patel, chairman and managing director, Platinum Constructions, said the budget was a let down especially since the sector has been witnessing a slowdown. “We hoped some relief especially in the affordable housing segment. However, we didn’t find any mention of housing in the budget,” he said.

The real estate sector has been facing a slump and was hoping for sops for builders in the budget. It wanted incentives for those constructing affordable houses along with funding for the same. In addition, they wanted concessions in value added tax (VAT) for the affordable segment. The state budget only talked of 1,65,936 backward class families living in kuccha houses being provided permanent dwellings or allotted new plots by 2019. The state has allotted Rs320 crore under the scheme.

Ahir blamed the state government for their failure to provide base amount for the Central government’s schemes. “We had brought the Rajiv Awas Yojana to provide affordable housing to the poor and also allotted the seed amount. However, there is no move from this government to allocate money to prepare groundwork for implementing the Central government schemes,” he said.