Chennai:
Tax cuts, increased infrastructure spending in urban
areas and concessional excise duties for small cars are some of the
expectations of the city-based traders, auto manufacturers and real estate
developers from Union budget.
The real
estate sector in the city feels the Union budget should focus on increased
infrastructure spending in the urban areas in order to unlock the value of
neglected and hidden land assets in these areas.
T Chitty
Babu, chief executive officer of Akshaya Pvt, Ltd said this would enable more
holistic growth for the real estate markets in our over-burdened metros and
allow the demand for housing to spread over a larger canvas.
He also
said that more tax benefits on housing loans would benefit the sector.
He
also said that the budget should reduce high cost of borrowing. “Currently
interest rates charged by the banks to developers and home buyers are high and
need to be brought down. A reduction in the base rate is necessary to help
banks lower their lending rates,” he added.
He also
said the budget must consider the fact that the Indian real estate sector
generates countless jobs across its various verticals. “By granting it industry
status, the government would enable the sector to access debt lending at better
interest rates and reduced collateral values,” he added.
He
said the budget should make provisions for subsidized construction materials
for low-to-mid-income housing, and rationalized license fees and other
government levies.
“One
of the key concerns the real estate sector has been facing is the inordinate
delay in sanction of approvals. Provision of single-window clearance for real
estate development projects is the need of the hour,” he added.
R
Sethuraman, director-finance and corporate affairs, Hyundai Motor India Ltd
said that the government should provide concessional excise duty structure to
small cars. He said the excise duty on small cars needs to be reduced to 10 per
cent besides reduction in duty structure for big cars to 24 per cent against
the current rate of 29 per cent.
He also
said that the government has recently announced an increase of diesel price by
50 paise per month to bring down the price difference between petrol and
diesel. “Some talks are going on to impose specific duty on diesel cars. This
will be double whammy for the consumers and will affect the passenger car
industry badly. Diesel cars now come with most advanced technologies and are
fuel efficient & environment friendly. The consumption of diesel by
passenger cars is miniscule (just one per cent of the total consumption).
Hence, in the interest of the industry, the government should not impose
additional duty on diesel cars,” he added.
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