Builders' body urges govt to cut policy rates

A national body of engineering construction contractors today urged Maharashtra government to cut rates in the monetary policy for the healthy growth of infrastructure and construction industry.
"We are disappointed over the monetary policy review announced last week as no corrective action had been taken to improve the fund position of infrastructure and construction industry, despite the inflation remaining under control. We urged the government to cut rates for the growth of the industry," Builders Association of India (BAI) spokesperson Anand Gupta said in a statement here.
BAI is a national apex body of engineering construction contractors and real estate companies with more than 15,000 business entities.

BAI was expecting a reduction in the repo rate for bringing down cost of the money for all the infrastructure projects and real estate projects. It was also expecting reduction in the CRR so as to have more money available in the market as presently there was a tremendous liquidity crunch in the market, particularly to the infrastructure projects and real estate projects, Gupta said.
"It is a matter of great concern for the industry that the policy does not include a special restructuring policy for infrastructure projects and its exclusion would adversely impact the number of players for taking up infrastructure projects thereby severely hampering the country's desired economic growth," he said.

Gupta added a special consideration for restructuring all infrastructure loans needs to be considered for better cash flow and implementation of projects.
He said that in order to achieve housing for all by 2022, interest rate of home loan should be brought down substantially by reducing repo rate and reversing repo rate.