New Delhi: The government is expected to come out with fresh guidelines and new income slabs for middle income groups (MIGs) to qualify for assistance in building houses in urban areas under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) scheme, two persons aware of the development said.
According to one of them, a Cabinet note has been moved proposing widening the income slab for MIGs and increasing the central assistance of ₹1.5 lakh per house for the economically weaker section (EWS) category.
Currently, people with an annual income of ₹6-12 lakh are considered to be in the MIG-1 category and those with ₹12-18 lakh annual income are under MIG-2 category, under the housing scheme.
The cabinet is expected to approve the revised framework for the PMAY 2.0 soon so that the scheme is notified and announced this month itself and rolled out for implementation immediately thereafter, the second person quoted above said.
To be sure, the changes are yet to be approved by the Cabinet.
The first person said that it would include enlarging the eligibility criteria for middle income group. “The idea is to provide housing to more people who have so far not been covered under the scheme.”
Benefits under credit-linked subsidy for MIGs
Benefits under credit-linked subsidy for MIG were given for acquisition or construction of 160-sq metre houses (including re-purchase) for MIG1 buyers, and up to 200-sq metre carpet area homes for MIG 2 buyers with interest subsidies of 4% and 3% respectively on loans of up to ₹9 lakh and ₹12 lakh.’
The first person said that under PMAY 2.0, the maximum loan amount on which interest subsidy is offered may be raised beyond ₹12 lakh because of the high cost of building houses in certain urban areas.
PMAY 2.0 would bring back the credit linked subsidy scheme (CLSS) which was discontinued under PMAY-U at the end of FY22.
Under PMAY 2.0, houses would be constructed for 10 million urban poor and middle class populations with an estimated investment of ₹10 trillion, out of which the central assistance would be ₹2.20 trillion over a five-year period.
In addition, 20 million additional houses are proposed to be made available in rural areas under the scheme.
The houses under the scheme have been divided into those for EWS, lower income and middle income families. The categorization may continue under PMAY 2.0 as well.
Under PMAY-U, a total of 11.8 million houses, with a total investment of ₹8.07 trillion including Central assistance of ₹2 trillion, have been sanctioned by the ministry of housing and urban affairs so far, out of which 11.4 million houses have been grounded and 8.5 million completed or delivered.
Minister of state for housing and urban affairs Tokhan Sahu told Parliament that no funds have been released under CLSS for MIG from the ministry after March 2021 and that the CLSS vertical for EWS and LIG categories was up to March 2022. Under CLSS, 2.5 million beneficiaries including 600,000 from the MIG category had availed interest subsidies amounting to ₹58,868 crore.
The Union cabinet on 10 June approved the construction of 30 million additional rural and urban homes to meet the housing requirements arising out of an increase in the number of eligible families.
Queries sent to the ministries of housing and urban affairs and finance were unanswered at press time.