Builders resided in Greater Noida, Noida, and Yamuna Expressway are at ease as the Uttar Pradesh government has reintroduced the zero-period policy to deal with delayed real estate projects in the area. Under this policy, the government has decided not to accept the penal interest and other dues on contractors for the period during which their projects were delayed due to action over land grant matters. But, the advantage is only applied to builders who give a lettered pledge that they would finish their projects by June 2021. The benefits will ultimately trickle down to homebuyers. Not only will the policy guarantee quick delivery of housing projects that are held for years, contractors are also expected to pass on the interest benefit for the zero periods to buyers. You may be wondering how the zero-period policy will benefit you. To put in laymen terms, during a ‘zero period’, no interest is levied on land allotment charges. Developers in Uttar Pradesh generally buy group housing land by paying 10% of the total land cost and the rest 90% is paid in installments. These funds have to be repaid at a specific rate of profit. If the project gets stuck and the builder defaults on payments due to liquidity crunch or lack of funds, then additional penal interest is levied on the installments delayed. The zero-period policy defines that if housing project was delayed due to the order by a court or if the Real Estate Regularity Authority (RERA) or the National Green Tribunal (NGT), delayed settlement of agreement fulfilling, then the affected period would be granted as ‘zero’. The policy also includes a situation wherein a developer could not start the production due to the lack of an access road or the authority’s negligence to obtain land at the period of handover. Real estate developers are spared from penal interest and dues with few conditions. A developer cannot charge interest from consumers for the zero-period privilege given by the government. The zero-period policy was initiated in 2011-12 in Greater Noida to support the developers whose projects were affected owing to the farmers’ agitation. The zero-period policy is likely to revive projects of many builders who have been categorized as defaulters due to the pile-up of interest. Entering the debtor category implies a contractor cannot get a new construction loan from banks, which affects the fulfillment of housing projects. Under the zero-period policy, the penal interest is dismissed and builders are capable to restructure their investments. It is will help projects become net worth positive to qualify for the Rs 25,000 crore alternative investment fund announced by the central government recently.
Property buyers these days in India first work out on the best means available for acquiring the immovable assets along with making a well- versed decision. Keeping in mind the most feasible financing options for benefit against taxes or to avoid the brokerage, directly meeting up with the sellers, people now a days are making an even smarter move by registering the property jointly with their spouses.
There are subtle benefits of getting the property registered jointly with your spouse such as elevation of the wife’s status in patriarchal society, impressive bonding, and long term commitments among the spouses. However, only a few are familiar with the financial benefits.
inexpensiveness
While purchasing a property, the budget is decided according to the loan eligibility which further depends upon the income of the buyer. The provision for joint registration here comes to your benefit since you can apply for joint home loan too whose eligibility is increased since two incomes will be considered and the debt burden is shared between two people. Not only the spouse, the joint home loan can also be opted with your parent or siblings
incentives in stamp duty
In order to encourage women to purchase property individually or jointly, government has introduced lower stamp duty for women. Like in Delhi, stamp duty payable by women is 4% as compared to 6% for men. Similarly in Rajasthan, it is 4% but men have to pay 5% the market value.
Claiming Tax Benefits on a Joint Home Loan
Under Section 80C, all the co-borrowers in a joint home loan can claim a tax reduction of 1.50 lacs for principal repayment. Besides, under Section 24, tax reduction up to 2 lacs could also be claimed for interest payment.
As a family you can claim a larger tax benefit for the interest paid on home loan when your property is jointly owned and your interest outgo is more than Rs 2lakhs per annum.
For more information- call an expert