Real estate can generate 5 crore jobs

Pointing out that real estate supports up to 250 industries and can help save the economy from the current lockdown crisis, developers have launched an online campaign generating close to 25,000 signatures from across the country.

The Rs 20 trillion package announced by the government offers miniscule benefit to the crisis-ridden real estate industry, as compared to the massive impact to the industry, said the SOS campaign, #ReviveRealEstateReviveEconomy, addressed to the Prime Minister.

It pointed out that the real estate industry contributes about 8 per cent to the GDP and hence needs an immediate attention. This is significant in view of the RBI forecast of a negative economic growth for the country.

The petition by MMR Action Committee of developers’ body CREDAI MCHI called for the reduction of home loan interest to 5 per cent, passing of the RBI repo rate cut benefit  to the end consumer, one-time restructuring of developers’ loans, extension of project completion timeline by RERA by a year, apart from and GST reliefs.

“We request for an urgent intervention at the highest level in the government so that the industry is revived to rejuvenate the economy as a whole,” said Ajay Ashar, spokesperson of the MMR Action Committee of CREDAI MCHI.

“The lockdown to check the spread of COVID-19 has resulted in halting the entire economic activity. The pandemic has compounded the difficulties of the crisis-ridden real estate industry,” he said.

Every rupee spent on construction results in an increase in the overall output of the economy by two rupees, while each one crore of revenue results in employment generation for 25 workers. Thus, the contribution of real estate is far more than any other sector, the petition said. The revival of real estate will also kick-start many other industries such as cement, steel, electric, paint, plumbing and elevators and all these will help safeguard jobs.

The real estate industry always stood up and supported the government, leading from the front. Even in this crisis of COVID-19, real estate has contributed to the PM Relief Fund, provided accommodation for doctors and paramedic and also provided space for creating temporary hospitals. During the lockdown, when labourers were not able to move from their site, all developers were taking care of those labourers by providing them food and shelter, the online petition said.

CREDAI MCHI asked for doubling the PMAY benefit and extending the plan to the entire country without any restrictions.

The petition sought extension of the GST Input Tax Credit for new projects as well, increasing the SWAHIM fund to Rs 1 trillionore, scrapping of the market-value basis for GST, speedy clearance of Indian Navy and aviation NOCs for want of which over 25,000 buyers are stuck.