Government hikes EWS income criteria for urban housing schemes to Rs1 lakh a year

Urban poor having an annual household income of up to Rs1 lakh will come under the classification of economically weaker section (EWS) and those falling between Rs1 lakh and 2 lakh would come under the low income group (LIG), as per the revised income criteria for government schemes.

Union minister of housing and urban poverty alleviation (HUPA) Ajay Maken today approved the revised income criteria for defining beneficiaries under government schemes for housing under his ministry.

Making this announcement on the sidelines of the inauguration of the HUDCO pavilion at IITF-2012 in New Delhi today, Maken said the previous income criteria for selection of beneficiaries under various schemes of his ministry were fixed during 2010.

Under the earlier criteria for classifying as EWS was a monthly household income of up to Rs5,000 while for the LIG segment it was Rs5,001 to Rs10,000.

The revised income criteria is based on the income, expenditure and cost of housing, growth in per capita income, minimum wages for non-agricultural workers, monthly per capita expenditure, NHB's `RESIDEX', consumer price index and consumer food price index etc, the minister said.

Maken said the housing needs of the urban poor continue to be pressing with shortfall of an estimated 18.78 million units at the beginning of the 12th Plan.

He said one of the modes of delivery of this objective is through channelisation of credit to meet the housing shortage among the urban poor. For this, he said, there is a need to periodically review and re-fix income ceiling levels for economically weaker sections and low income groups.