All of us dream of owning our own house, someday, if not already. Sometimes, due to the scarcity of funds and other responsibilities in life, this dream becomes difficult to realise. Also, the market rate interest rate may be unaffordable. To solve these concerns of most Indians, the Government of India launched the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Scheme (PMAY) in June 2015. The PMAY aims to facilitate the dream of owning a pucca house of all Indians, even those with limited resources. The housing facilities included under the scheme also include access to potable water, hygienic sanitation facilities, electricity, and LPG. The scheme has been created keeping in mind the needs of the Middle-Income Groups or MIGs and Lower Income Groups or LIGs, who are also called the Economically Weaker Sections or EWS. The way this scheme works is like a home loan but with a subsidised interest rate and certain conditions and limits on subsidy.
The Scheme defines the MIG and LIG categories based on a household’s annual income, given as follows:
- EWS: Up to Rs.3 lakh
- LIG: Rs.3 lakh to Rs.6 lakh
- MIG I: Rs.6 lakh to Rs.12 lakh
- MIG II: Rs.12 lakh to Rs.18 lakh
The PMAY subsidy scheme has two variants basis the geographic location—PMAY-U for the Urban scheme and PMAY-G for the rural or Grameen scheme. The primary target audience for these schemes are the urban poor and/or migrant labour, factory workers, marginalised sections, such as the SCs, STs, OBCs, women, widows of paramilitary and ex-military personnel, transgender, and senior citizens (up to the age of 70 years).
The interest subsidy limits have been defined as under:
- 5% for EWS and LIG (till a loan sum of Rs.6 lakh for both)
- 4% for MIG I (till a loan sum of Rs.9 lakh)
- 3% for MIG II (till a loan amount of Rs.12 lakh)
The Urban scheme has four components under which the scheme benefits can be availed. These are as follows:
- Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS). This limits the carpet area and the subsidy on the rate of interest for the eligible population, for a predetermined amount. The objective is to make available a pucca house to a household through an adult earning member of the family. If an earning adult or their family pre-owns such a house, they are ineligible for this scheme under CLSS. The beneficiary can be anyone ranging from a husband, or a wife, or an unmarried son, or an unmarried daughter. One earning adult can avail of the subsidy only once in the lifetime of the scheme.
- The In-Situ Slum Redevelopment (ISSR) project is a part of the PMAY-U scheme which works towards slum rehabilitation projects in cities.
- Affordable Housing Partnerships (AHP) is another component of the Urban scheme that facilitates public-private partnership in realty projects under this scheme.
- If there is anyone unable to apply for the benefits of the scheme under any of the above 3 components, they have the option of applying for the construction of an individual house or the enhancement or upgrade of an existing house up to a limit of Rs.1.5 lakh, from the Government.
Nobody can avail of any benefits under the PMAY scheme if they have already been beneficiaries of any other Government scheme for the same purpose.
The Rural scheme is a shared responsibility between the Centre and the State, along similar lines.
If you wish to apply for the PMAY subsidy, please follow the steps mentioned below:
- Check your PMAY eligibility in the PMAY list on the website. You can search for your name using your Aadhar number at the tab ‘Search Beneficiary’.
- Apply for a home loan—although limits have been specified on the footage and its respective loan sum in this scheme, on which interest subsidy is levied, no limits have been mandated for applying for a larger loan sum (over and above the subsidy component). This, overall loan sum’s approval is dependent on the lender who ascertains the same for an applicant through the regular parameters of CIBIL score, income, the market value of property in question, investments portfolio, age, and such other factors.
- Apply for the PMAY scheme on the government’s website www.pmaymis.gov.in through the Citizen Assessment tab and fill in the requisite details and furnish proof of documents. You also have the option to apply offline at any of the Common Service Centres (CSC). Anyone with an existing home loan, if eligible for the scheme, also has the leeway to apply for and avail of the benefits of this scheme.
- Then, attach the PMAY subsidy application to your home loan application for your lender’s assessment. After the documents and your PMAY status is verified, the loan and the PMAY is likely to be approved for disbursal to your bank account in a quarter.
Fulfil your dream of owning a pucca house now with the help of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Scheme!
