There is a lack of awareness among the people about the benefits available under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).
New Delhi. There is a lack of awareness among the people about the benefits available under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). The government has put forward the benefits of the scheme in the recently introduced General Budget, despite this, more than 46 percent of the existing home buyers are not aware of the benefits available under it. It has been revealed in a survey.
Basic Home Loans, a Gurugram-based startup, conducted this survey in which over a thousand people who had taken loans under the category of cheap houses during the last nine months, were asked questions about the benefits of the PMAY scheme. The government launched the PMAY scheme in 2015 to provide housing to all by the year 2022. Only 17 per cent of the people in the survey were aware that subsidy up to a maximum of Rs 2.67 lakh is provided under the PMAY scheme. Only 48 percent of respondents were aware that home buyers from the Economically Weak (EWS) and Low Income Group (LIG) category are the priority consumers covered under it.
Basic home loans works to provide housing loans to middle and low income families sitting at home without going around the banks, for which it does not charge any fee. It is a financial technology startup. The company has tie-ups with 16 banks. It says that only 37 percent of the people responded correctly about the maximum period of repayment of loan under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Most people termed it 30 years while the maximum duration is 20 years.
Basic Home Loans Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Atul Monga said that the beneficiaries under the PMAY should get the benefits of the scheme automatically. They should not go through the process of making a new application to get its benefits. It has been six years since the scheme was launched. Since then, two more categories have been included in it, yet the eligible public seems ignorant of the basic information of the scheme. In such a situation, the lenders, the government and all the institutions connected with it should take up the responsibility of raising awareness about the scheme. ”
According to the survey, some new features have been added in the new edition of 2021 PMAY scheme. Under this, the benefit of the scheme has been given to the middle income group (MIG-I) and MIG-2 till 31 March 2021. At the same time, its deadline has been extended to 31 March 2022 for LIG and EWS classes. Apart from this, the government has also given the benefit of additional deduction of one and a half lakh rupees on the interest given on loans taken for cheap houses. In this year’s budget, this benefit has been extended till March 2022.
The tax holiday benefit for affordable housing projects has also been extended till March 2022. Along with this, tax exemption has also been allowed for notified rent residential projects.
