Allocation of Rs 23,000 crore for PMAY and target of completing 1 crore houses by 2019 will give a big boost to the tiles industry

- Kamlesh Patel, Chairman & Managing Director, Asian Granito India Kamlesh Patel, Chairman & Managing Director, Asian Granito India, on the Union Budget 2017-18: Infrastructure status to affordable housing is the biggest positive announcement in the Budget. This will help achieve government target of construction of 60 million homes under initiative of Housing for All. Another big push for the industry is reduction of custom duty on LNG from 5 per cent to 2.5 per cent. Abolition of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) will attract more FDI in real estate. Reducing corporate tax by 5 per cent ie from 30 per cent to 25 per cent will give major relief to unogranised small scale players in Morbi-Cluster. Allocation of Rs 23,000 crore for Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana and target of completing 1 crore houses by 2019 will give a big boost to the tiles industry. Proposed changes for considering carpet area instead of built-up area for the scheme for profit-linked income tax deduction for promotion of affordable housing are steps in the right direction. Special stimulus is provided in the budget to middle class, rural economy and farmers, youth and education, infrastructure and employment, and thus, will give big push to economy and help it achieve GDP of 8 per cent plus in coming time. Sanitation coverage in rural India has gone up from 42 per cent in October 2014 to about 60 per cent. Disappointed that corporate tax not reduced.