Amidst slowdown in the economy and a liquidity crunch, the realty sector players on Sunday appealed to the Centre to introduce an additional memorandum on principal repayment of between one to two years, depending on the size of the project and stage of construction. At their meeting with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and housing minister Hardeep Singh Puri, they demanded that in the one-time restructuring scheme, the proportional security and collateral security may be released on repayment of loan and developers be allowed servicing the interest on a monthly basis at an interest rate of home loans charged by the bank. The difference being accumulated in working capital term loan be repaid as a bullet at the end of the loan. Representatives from Credai-Mchi and Naredco also pressed the need to make provision of additional finance to meet the balance cost of construction without any provisioning be allowed. They strongly made a case for the amendment to the RERA to make it development-friendly and also to ensure timely completion of projects. On the recent circular issued by National Housing Bank on subvention scheme, they demanded that it should be withdrawn or revised to allow housing finance companies and banks subvention based funding linked to construction milestones. Further, in view of the national mission of ''Housing for All by 2022,'' and the real estate share of GDP of around 7%, banks should be mandated by RBI to extend at least 10% of their total loans sanctioned to realty sector including housing loans. Realty players suggested that there should be a uniform definition of affordable housing. ''Affordable housing will mean such housing comprises units either costing up to Rs 45 lakh or units with a carpet area as defined under RERA that does not exceed 60 sq mt in the metros and 90 sq mt elsewhere as the case may be.'' Moreover, realty players said as the land cost accounts for 30 to 70 per cent of the total cost of real estate project, land funding be allowed and there should be fix debt-equity ratio at 75:25. Naredco President Niranjan Hiranandani said the liquidity crisis and the need for tax rationalisation were two major challenges facing the realty sector and infrastructure industry. ''Quick resolution of the same would go a big way in enabling these sectors to play its role in enhancing GDP growth as also creating jobs,'' he noted. In order to boost demand creation, housing loan up to Rs 1 crore may be counted towards the priority sector and interest paid on home loans under section 24(b) of Income Tax be fully exempted from the taxable income for the purchase of the first house of the family and should not be limited to Rs 2 lakh available for deduction from their income as at present. INDUSTRY DEMANDS ACTION

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