The interim budget announced was not in line with industry expectations as it has not brought in any relief for the industries/real estate sector in order to bring economy back on the growth track. It is very disappointing that the interim budgets had no focus on improving the sentiments of the consumer and encourage the home buyers.
In order to revive the real estate sector the government should have shown concern and taken steps to improve the demand for the housing sector. It was expected that through the interim budget the government would send a strong message to RBI to take necessary steps like reduction in the home mortgage interest rate to the tune of 6%-6.5%. Also, to increase the bracket for priority lending for houses upto Rs 30 lakh instead of Rs 20 lakh coupled with reintroduction of section 80(IB) and reductions in direct taxes.
However, no such initiative was taken in the interim budget announced. Another thing that came as a disappointment was that government did not take necessary steps to do away with over all negative sentiment that prevails today. In the current economic environment, the government should have taken measures to ensure job security and to generate more employment opportunities. As this sense of job security would have induced some positive sentiments and motivated them to come forward and make their purchase. Thus by helping people, the government could have helped the real estate sector without any extra costs.
This clearly indicates that the interim budget announced today was not aimed to rescue the economy and was just a populous budget.