Budget 2019: This is what Indian real estate looks forward too
It’s budget time and everyone is pinning their hopes on the new Finance Minister and Modi 2.0. So why should the realty sector remain far behind? The real estate sector has lots of expectations from this budget, more because it is facing a downturn for a long time and has also got hit hard by some recent policy decisions. Rajat Rastogi, Executive Director, Runwal Group, “The expectations are quite high this time, too, as the government will present its first budget after winning with a thumping majority in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. The government needs to take fiscal measures to address the deteriorating NBFC liquidity crisis. A reform that has been long due is granting the industry status to the real estate sector for a proper overhaul. We hope for a budget that is conducive and propels the growth of the economy, boosts the real estate sector, benefits the home buyers and provides relief to the developer community.” “We expect the government in its first budget to adopt softer interest rates for a time-being and roll out a bigger tax benefit for individual and corporate aiming at increasing the investment - capex cycle, giving a boost to demand cycle aiming healthy GDP growth. Further, the industry wants the government to ensure maximum compliance for GST and strict implementation of e-way bill. Tile is an essential commodity and not a luxury commodity and essential in housing and Sanitation hence we request the government to lower the GST to 12% from the current 18%. Power and fuel (largely gas) costs account for around 20-25% of revenues for the tile industry and we would like the government to rationalise the same through lowering duties. To boost exports, we want the finance minister to introduce incentives for exports or exempt profit from exports as provisions earlier.” Kamlesh Patel, CMD, Asian Granito India Ltd. “As the interim budget is ensuing in the coming days we expect the realty sector to see a complete revival. To maintain its position as one of the fastest growing economies, the budget needs to be a healthy mixture of everything and assure economic and financial growth. Solving the liquidity crisis over NBFC’s by increasing the financial limits is necessary for benefitting the developers at large.” Manju Yagnik, Vice Chairperson, Nahar Group & Vice President NAREDCO (MAHARASHTRA) Varun Manian, Managing Director, Radiance Realty Developers Ltd., “The Real Estate and Infrastructure sector is one of the predominant growth drivers of our GDP and the sectors offers huge employment opportunities. We believe that this time, the union budget would have a positive impact on the sector with some measures to re-energise the sector, including; simplified and unified GST where buyers benefit, allowing PSU banks to extend credit to developers on merit (removing real estate from red list), RERA approval timelines to be earmarked, singular definition of affordable housing for interest sub-vention and allow direct FDI into residential projects.” Satya Vyas, CEO and Co-Founder, Tornado, “On a macro level, the industry needs more stable and consumer-friendly policies which will strengthen demand and boost the sector further. Real estate is a crucial sector in India and it contributes to a total of 6-7% of the GDP while generating a handsome amount of employment opportunities in the country.” In the end, the government needs to weigh various options and adopt those that suit the macro parameters of the sector as well as the economy.
Tags : News/Views