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R.V. Verma (left) with UBI chairman and MD Bhaskar Sen in Calcutta on Wednesday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury
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Calcutta, Oct. 10: A government-sponsored loan guarantee scheme for low-income housing, proposed in the budget, should be up and running by the end of this fiscal.
The National Housing Bank (NHB) is the nodal agency for the Credit Guarantee Trust Fund, which will provide the guarantee for loans up to Rs 5 lakh.
“We have set up the fund and it should start operating by the end of this fiscal,” NHB chairman and managing director R.V. Verma today said on the sidelines of a Ficci event here.
The trust fund is being jointly floated by the Union and state governments and has an initial corpus of Rs 1,000 crore.
Verma said the credit guarantee would lower the risk on home loans in the low-income segment, giving some relief to lenders who can pass on the benefit to customers by way of an interest subsidy.
The NHB is also eyeing a 20 per cent growth in disbursement in 2012-13. “Home loan disbursements grew 17 per cent to 18 per cent in 2011-12. This year, we expect home loan disbursements to grow 20 per cent,” Verma said.
The wholly owned subsidiary of the RBI has also firmed up an annual borrowing plan of Rs 14,000 crore. It will raise Rs 5,000 crore each through tax-savings bonds and normal market bonds. The remaining will come from the issue of rural bonds.
Meanwhile, Bengal urban development and municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim said the NHB had shown interest in funding low-cost housing projects in the state. “They (NHB) had a meeting with me. They are interested in funding low-cost housing in Bengal,” he said.
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