NEW DELHI (INDIA): Sheltrex Developers CEO Sandeep Singh Gaur said that We are extremely excited about the government’s move of giving ‘Infrastructure status’ to affordable housing as this is the biggest boost to the real estate sector because it will make funding easier.
“This will also play a critical role in achieving PM’s dream of ‘Housing for All’ by 2022 and increase the participation of private players in the sector. The industry that was struggling in the last couple of years, on the number of product launches, will get a boost through this move,” he said.
“Another interesting aspect is a reduction in corporate tax rate for MSMEs having revenues less than Rs 50 Crore to 25 percent. The government had introduced a profit-linked income tax deduction for promotion of affordable housing which was not well accepted because it had certain constraints and parameters which were not practical. But, by increasing the ambit of the scheme, a key announcement of counting the carpet area instead of built-up area, for Affordable Housing of 30 (Metro) and 60 (rest of India) square meters, will broadly increase housing sizes and hence the scheme will now have a true impact on the sector. Also, the tax benefits period has been increased to 5 years which was 3 years earlier,” said Gaur.
“The budget proposes to change the prevalent practice and has clarified that the landowner entering into a joint development agreement for development of the property, shall be subject to capital gains tax upon completion of the project. This is a significant change, because it will now make joint development agreements easier which in turn will lead to increase in supply of projects,” added Gaur.
Affordable Housing will be given Infrastructure Status
The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Arun Jaitley while presenting the General Budget 2017-18 in Parliament said that affordable housing will now be given infrastructure status, which will enable these projects to avail the associated benefits.
The National Housing Bank (NHB) will refinance individual housing loans of about Rs. 20,000 crore in 2017-18. Thanks to the surplus liquidity created by demonetisation, the Banks have already started reducing their lending rates, including those for housing. The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley in his Budget Speech said that in addition, interest subvention for housing loans has also been announced by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
GST Council has finalised its recommendations on almost all the issues based on consensus
The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs,Jaitley said that the GST Council has finalised its recommendations on almost all the issues based on consensus after spirited debate and discussions.
The Finance Minister said that the Government on its part has promptly given effect to various provisions of the Constitutional Amendment Act, including constitution of the GST Council.
The GST Council held 9 meetings to discuss various issues relating to GST, including broad contours of the GST rate structure, threshold exemption and parameters for composition scheme, details for compensation to States due to implementation of GST, examination of draft model GST law, draft IGST law and the Compensation Law and administrative mechanism for GST.
He said the preparation of IT system for GST is also on schedule.
The Finance Minister Jaitley in his Budget Speech further said that the extensive reach-out efforts to trade and industry for GST will start from 1st April, 2017 to make them aware of the new taxation system.
He said that since the enactment of the Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, 2016, there has been substantial progress on preparatory work towards ushering in GST which is by far the biggest tax reform since Independence.
“Several teams of officers both from the States and Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC)have been working to give finishing touch to the Model GST law, rules and other details, he added.
Jaitley said that the Government, through the Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) shall continue to strive to achieve the goal of implementation of GST as per schedule without compromising the spirit of co-operative federalism.
He added that the implementation of GST is likely to bring more taxes both to Central and State Governments because of widening of tax net.
The Finance Minister Jaitley stated that not many changes have been proposed in current regime of Excise & Service Tax in the Budget proposals since they are to be replaced by GST soon.