Budget 2019: What Do Home Buyers Need From The Finance Minister?


Posted June 26, 2019 by floraheights

Presently, a deduction of Rs 1.50 lakhs is allowed, for repayment of the principal amount of home loans, under Section 80 C.

 
Introducing a separate limit for home loan principal repayment

Presently, a deduction of Rs 1.50 lakhs is allowed, for repayment of the principal amount of home loans, under Section 80 C. Since Section 80 C was introduced in 2003, with an initial limit of Rs 1 lakh, it has only been revised once in 2014, to Rs 1.50 lakhs. This revised limit is not sufficient, to keep pace with inflation during the period. The almost stagnant limit, accompanied with the introduction of various items like deposits under the Senior Citizen Scheme, five-year tax-saving fixed deposits, national pension system, Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme, etc., makes this space crowded.

Moreover, with the ever increasing prices of real estate, the amount needed to finance a residential unit has skyrocketed over the years.

Due to the many items covered under Section 80 C, the limit of Rs 1.50 lakhs gets exhausted easily, with just a few items like life insurance premium, provident fund/ public provident fund contributions, tuition fees for school children, etc. These items generally crowd out the principal repayment of home loan for most of the tax payers, especially those who are salaried. So, considering all the above reasons, the finance minister should introduce a separate limit for home loan repayment through a separate section, by carving it out from Section 80 C.

Removing the limit of Rs 2 lakhs, for deduction with respect to interest paid

The government wants everyone to have a house by 2022 but there are certain provisions in the income tax laws, which come in the way of achieving this objective. A person who has borrowed money, for the purchase or construction of a house for self-occupancy, is entitled to claim a deduction for interest paid up to Rs 2 lakhs, whereas, there is no such limit if the house property is let-out. The excess amount of interest, if any, paid on money borrowed for self-occupied property, gets lost.

Logically, the law should be the other way round. If the government wants people to own houses, it should provide tax benefits for full interest paid, if the house is to be used for self-occupancy and the restriction, if any, should be applicable on people who wish to do tax arbitrage by buying a house and letting it out. Hence, the finance minister should remove the cap of Rs 2 lakhs on interest for self-occupied houses.

The interim budget 2019 recognised the practical need of a person to have two houses for self-occupancy for various reasons and introduced a law, allowing a tax payer to have two self-owned houses as self-occupied. However, the amount of interest that can be claimed for both the houses together, has been retained at Rs 2 lakhs. If it is not possible to remove this limit altogether, the finance minister should allow a limit of Rs 2 lakhs on interest, for each of the self-owned and self-occupied houses.

Increase in the limit of loss to be set off against income

Prior to 2018, there was no restriction on the amount of loss under house property, which could be set off against other income of the year. However, the budget of 2018 introduced a limit of Rs 2 lakhs, beyond which loss computed under the head of house property, cannot be set off against other income. Looking at the amount of loan and interest that one has to pay, this amount is insufficient. This limit of loss that can be set off against other income, should be raised to Rs 5 lakhs, to give relief to the small tax payers in urban areas.

Carry forward of unabsorbed losses, under the head income from house property

Housing for All by 2022 is the ambitious mission of the government and it has introduced various fiscal incentives for first-time home buyers in various categories, by way of cash subsidies, etc., but there are some hindrances, as well. Presently, any loss beyond the limit of Rs 2 lakhs under the head ‘income from house property’, is not allowed to be set off against other income and thus has to be carried forward. This loss beyond Rs 2 lakhs, is allowed to be carried forward for eight subsequent years, to be set off against income under the house property head only. Since a home loan is a long-term product, where the general tenure is 20 years, there is no probability of the tax payer having any positive income under the head ‘Income from house property’ unless the tax payer prepays the home loan during the initial years.

As the probability of the tax payer having a positive income under this head is almost negligible during the initial nine years of the home loan and if the government really wishes to promote Housing for All, it should remove the restriction of eight years for carry forward of losses under the house property head and allow this loss to be carried forward and set off, till it gets fully set off, so as to let the tax payer have the benefit.

Rationalisation of GST rates for under-construction houses

The average home buyer is not tax-savvy and may not understand the intricacies of the tax laws. The recent decision of the GST Council, to reduce the GST rates for various categories of houses, accompanied with an option to the developer, to migrate or not migrate to the reduced rates regime for pending projects, has caused confusion in the minds of home buyers.

The reduction in GST rates for under-construction properties, has been coupled with a removal of the input credit, for the GST paid on the inputs used for the construction of the property. Although the move was intended to give relief to the home buyers, the results have been to the contrary. While developers have been collecting reduced GST rates, they have increased the base price of the property. This has resulted into higher cost to the home buyers, as the developers are not able to utilise the input credit which arises at higher rates of GST on such inputs, against the liability of lower GST rates on sale of such under-construction properties. This is happening, because the costing of the developer is not transparent.

Decisions pertaining to GST rates are taken by the GST Council, headed by the finance minister and hence, are outside the purview of the union budget presentation. Nevertheless, the GST Council needs to critically examine the real impact of the reduced rates regime without the input credit for developers, if it really wants to provide relief to the home buyers.

This should be done with collection of data across the country about the rates of properties booked, before and after the implementation of the proposal to reduce the GST rates.

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Source: https://housing.com/news/budget-what-do-home-buyers-need-from-the-finance-minister/
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Issued By Flora Heights
Country India
Categories Construction , Property , Real Estate
Tags 3 bhk flat in andheri west , 4 bhk flats in andheri west , apartments in andheri west , flats for sale in andheri west , flats in andheri west , new projects in andheri west , property in andheri west , property rates in andheri west
Last Updated June 26, 2019