The poor will receive houses in the budget.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the full budget for the financial year 2024-25 on July 23, 2024. This time the focus of the government in the budget may be on the middle class and the poor. While there are talks from different quarters of the country about giving tax breaks to the middle class, the government is also paying attention to the upliftment of the poor. In such a situation, this time in the budget the government may make a big announcement to fulfil the dream of 3 crore people owning homes.
When Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the interim budget in February, she also talked about expanding the scope of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. At the same time, she also assured that a new housing scheme for the middle class would be created. Now there are high chances that a concrete announcement in this regard will be made in the budget.
Funds to be released for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana
The government may release more funds in the budget for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Rural. In such a situation, with the release of fresh funds, the target of constructing 31.4 lakh houses in rural areas can be achieved by March 2025. Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana has been a flagship scheme of the Modi government. This scheme has been framed to fulfil the government’s goal of ‘Housing for All’.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, a target of constructing 2.95 crore houses in rural areas by March 2024 has been set. Since the scheme was launched in November 2016, construction of 2.63 crore houses has been completed in the country. This scheme was relaunched by the Modi government making radical changes to the previous government’s Indira Awas Yojana.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Rural, in most states, the Central government bears 60 per cent of the cost of the house. The remaining expenses are borne by the State governments. Not only this, in the North-Eastern states this cost goes up to 90 per cent of the Centre’s share. While in the Union Territories, 100 per cent of the expenditure is borne by the Central Government.
New houses worth 3 crore rupees will also be built.
The government had set a target of constructing 2.95 crore houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana by March 2024, but in the interim budget, the government increased its scope and set a target of constructing an additional 2 crore houses in rural areas. It will be completed in the next 5 years. At the same time, after returning to power at the Centre, Modi 3.0 also approved the proposal of constructing one crore houses in urban areas in the first cabinet meeting.
