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.
