Low cost housing to stimulate India’s growth

MUMBAI: The budget proposal to promote low cost housing is likely to boost the country's economy amid a pick-up in consumption demand, said Kapil Wadhawan, chairman of Wadhawan Global Capital (WGC), the financial services conglomerate that runs Dewan Housing Finance as its flagship.

"The Budget proposals to increase spends in rural areas, low cost housing, poverty alleviation as well as the agricultural sector should provide a growth stimulus to the Indian economy and a pickup in consumption demand," said the chairman.

The budget continues to build on some of the large initiatives rolled out last year like Demonetisation & GST implementation.

The government's attempt to broaden the tax base in India and developments to improve transparency and efficiency in the system are key positives in the budget.

"In nutshell, the Budget is robust on rural spending, fiscal math and macroeconomic parameters. It will certainly boost the rural and agriculture sectors," Wadhawan said.

"The Union Budget 2018, an incremental move in the backdrop of global oil price uncertainty & growing protectionism, maintaining a fiscal deficit of 3.5% for this year and promise to bring it down to 3.3% next year is a very credible and realistic step."

Robust outlays for agriculture and rural economy, healthcare, rural housing and affordable urban housing, infrastructure and education were the major highlights.