New Delhi:

As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an increase in the Budget outlay for the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana (PMAY), allocating around Rs 79,000 crore for the flagship scheme, Budget documents show the hike is primarily in the rural component of the plan.

The finance minister on Wednesday said the allocation to the both components of the PMAY — the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (urban) and the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (gramin) — has been raised by 66 percent.

In the budget presented on Wednesday, the government has earmarked Rs 25,103 crore for the urban component of the scheme, while Rs 54,487 has been allocated for the rural component, making it a total of Rs 79,590 crore.

In the last fiscal, Rs 20,000 crore was allocated for the urban component of PMAY, while the revised estimate for the expenditure was Rs 28,708 crore. The allocation made to PMAY-U under the 2023-24 Budget is around 12 percent lower than the revised estimate for the last year.

The revised estimate for expenditure on the rural component of the scheme was Rs 48,422 crore, almost two-and-a-half times more than the original allocation of Rs 20,000 crore.

The hike in the allocation of the rural component of the scheme compared to the revised estimate of last fiscal is also around 12 percent. Altogether, the allocation for PMAY — rural and urban — made initially in the Budget 2022-23 was Rs 48,000 crore, which brings the hike announced by the Minister to the tune of 66 percent.

However, the revised estimates, which is a mid-year review of expenditure, pushed the total spending to Rs 77,130 crore. And when compared to the revised estimate, the increase in allocations this time is around three percent.

On December 19 last year, the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry had told Rajya Sabha that against the validated demand of 1.12 crore houses, as on December 12, 2022, 1.20 crore houses have been sanctioned by the ministry based on the project proposals submitted by states and union territories.

The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban has been extended till December 31, 2024 for completion of already sanctioned houses.

The PMAY-G was launched in November 2016 with the aim of providing around three crore pucca houses with basic amenities to all eligible homeless families living in kutcha and dilapidated houses in rural areas by 2024. According to the Economic Survey tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, a total of 2.7 crore houses have been sanctioned and 2.1 crore of them completed by 6 January 2023 under the scheme in rural areas.

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