‘Government needs Rs 1 lakh crore in 3 years to build 1 crore houses’

Of the total Central assistance, `19,000 crore has been factored in the budgetary allocation till FY19.
Image used for representational purpose.
Image used for representational purpose.

BHUBANESWAR :  In a bid to meet its ambitious target of constructing one crore houses in urban areas by 2022 under PMAY-U, the government has to shell out Rs 1 lakh crore over the next three years and about Rs 1.5 lakh crore in seven financial years through 2022, at an average of Rs 1.5 lakh per house, according to the findings of rating agency CRISIL. However, it has disbursed just 22 per cent or Rs 32,500 crore so far.

Launched in June 2015, the government’s flagship Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) scheme aims to provide affordable housing for all by 2022 and the ministry has a target to sanction 75 lakh houses and construct 30 lakh of them by the end of FY19. As on November 26, a total of 63 lakh houses have been sanctioned, but only 12 lakh have been constructed, while 23 lakh houses are under construction, it noted. 

“Our calculations show the government will have to garner around Rs 1 lakh crore over the next three years to achieve the target of building one crore houses. This is going to be a tall task given the current fiscal arithmetic,” said Prasad Koparkar, senior director, CRISIL Research.

Of the total Central assistance, Rs 19,000 crore has been factored in the budgetary allocation till FY19. The balance would be met through future budget allocations and internal and extra budgetary resources, of which Rs 25,000 crore has been provided for this fiscal. 

The agency noted that for extra-budgetary resources, the government has already initiated fund-raising (in the form of bonds) through entities such as the Housing and Urban Development Corporation. 

“As these are typically bonds with 10 years of maturity, with interest and principal repayment to be managed through future budgetary announcements, the provisions in future budgets would be a key monitorable,” it said. 

broader opportunities
According to Rahul Prithiani, Research director, CRISIL, one crore houses would mean an opportunity for over I2 lakh crore of home loans, and incremental consumption of 80-100 million tonne of cement and 10-15 million tonne of steel.

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