Will Union Budget Bring More Sops For Housing?

Information and broadcasting got tagged to M. Venkaiah Naidu's portfolio as late as July 2016. So, it is not surprising perhaps, that the primary concern of the Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, should be incentives for housing and urban development, a sector hit hard by the demonetisation exercise.

Even though the Union minister responded tersely to media queries about Budgetary benefits for housing, he did admit to having sought incentives for the sector from the Union ministry for finance. The Prime Minister has already announced interest subvention of three per cent and four per cent for loans of up to Rs 12 lakh and Rs 9 lakh respectively under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) on New Year's Eve, in a bid to give some succor to low-income housing projects in peripheral areas of urban localities.

"Unlike in some political parties, we do not believe in talking to each other through the media," Naidu retorted, parrying questions on Budgetary sops for real estate and housing projects, which have taken a beating since the demonetisation exercise began in November.

He admitted to having had a dialogue on the subject with Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, though. Naidu conceded that a spurt in housing could give a boost to steel production and have a similar spiraling impact on other lagging sectors of the economy.

Addressing journalists at the Indian Women's Press Corps on Wednesday afternoon, Naidu valiantly defended demonetisation and the performance of the Indian economy under the Narendra Modi led government at the Centre. He pointed out that economic slowdown was a global phenomenon at the moment and that even the Chinese economy had begun to show signs of strain. Notorious for his similes, Naidu likened the "black economy" to "cancer" and said that hair loss (the travails wrought by demonetisation and the cash crunch in the economy that ensued) was only a side-effect of chemotherapy. "It was a bitter pill for a long-term ill," he quipped.

Will mull on media
Asked whether he was concerned about the severe contraction that the media business in general and print media in particular had witnessed recently, the minister said that he did not have much sympathy for fly-by-night publications that had been forced to close down. He said he would, however, take cognizance of the factors that had compelled large media houses to shut down editions and cut back on their workforce.

A week ago, a Times of India editorial titled, 'Indian newspaper industry: Red ink splashed across the bottomline' had hinted that the compulsions dumped on the industry by the wage board for journalists and non-journalists employed in print media and the higher taxation that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) would bring, would deal a hard blow to the bottomline of newspapers, which have already had to freeze employment and cut costs on many heads.

In a statement shortly after, the Union ministry for information and broadcasting had announced that the minister had instructed Secretary, Ajay Mittal, to speak to all the "stakeholders". On Wednesday, Venkaiah Naidu elaborated that he would seek the views of all, including trade unions, before taking a view on the malaise in the media business. Responding to a specific question on his views on the wage board recommendations, the minister said that the rise in indices for inflation, did suggest a need to revise wages and salaries of journalists.

The meeting with "stakeholders" in the media business, though, may not be top most on the ministry's priority on the eve of the Union Budget.