No
tax on rental income
By Staff Reporter
Draft National Housing Policy has strongly
suggested that there shall not be any tax on rental income from
house property in the country. The policy has also suggested that
the house tax must be uniform across that country. With the
intention of rationalizing the housing scenario in the country,
government of India has tabled that draft National Housing Policy.
National Housing and Habitat Policy, 1998, was
formulated to provide the shelter besides rationalization of Stamp
Duty and strongly recommending to repeal the ULC Act. Now, the new
Draft National Housing Policy has been promulgated to restore the
loosing interest in housing and making affordable. The policy also
has suggested that those residential properties are in use for
commercial purposes shall be charged extra tax.
These tax incentives are offered to open the
close doors in urban accommodation for renting. The policy has
recommended that that all the state Rent Control Act must abolished.
According to the statistic of 2001 census,
another 130 crore people will migrate to urban areas in next decade
as employment in the agriculture sector is loosing its trend. Hence
the government is planning to open the rental accommodation for the
new migrants to the urban centre by way of providing the incentives
to the rental income.
The draft policy also states that 15.8 million
dwellings across the country remain unoccupied / locked up, thanks
to the prohibitive Rent Control Act and property taxes.
As part of its attempt to free up housing, the
Government intend to discourage aging couples from occupying big
houses. It will encourage older people to shift to smaller houses
which provide them security and just enough space to suit their
needs.
Even then 3.5 per cent additional land would be
needed to accommodate the swelling population. Of the additional
land to be developed for new housing projects, 20-25 per cent
housing stock has to be earmarked for economically backward city/
household service providers.
The draft National Housing Policy has been
formulated after due delegations and research on housing status in
the country.
