KOCHI, July 25: The Union government is planning to allow private housing companies to raise funds abroad for financing housing projects. Union minister for urban affairs and employment Ram Jethmalani said the government's decision to build 2 million houses per annum would help the key industries to stage a revival in a short span.At a meeting organised by the Cochin Stock Exchange here on Friday, he urged the players in the capital market to shed the fear psychosis stemming from rumours about economic sanctions and said the proposed bill to introduce secondary debt instruments now under the consideration of parliament would go a long way to revive the ailing Indian capital market.There was a colossal deficit of 30 million houses which required an outlay of least Rs 150,000 crore, he said. The idea was to provide land and certain legal concessions to those private parties which have joined hands with the government to solve the housing problem.Jethmalani said the government was, in a bid to give afillip to the construction industry, planning to allow the private players in the housing sector to raise funds through external commercial borrowings (ECBs).Inviting private businesses to join hands with the government in its effort to build 2 million dwellings per annum, he said the government would take all possible measures to help the private entrepreneurs in the venture. The government had already met almost all the demands of the construction industry, including the FDI into housing sector and a five-year tax holiday.He said the fresh infusion of Rs 138 crore into Hudco's capital base would increase the activity level in the economy. "Once the construction industry takes off, it will kindle a chain reaction in its auxiliary industries like steel, cement and transportation. This would in effect lead to quick economic recovery," he said.The proposed bill to introduce secondary market for trading in securitised debt, which is now under the consideration of the parliament, would help the capitalmarket to stage a recovery, he felt. There was no need to worry about the `fictitious' economic sanctions and the government would ensure that nobody suffered on account of the nuclear blasts.Earlier, at a `meet the press' programme organised by the Ernakulam Press Club, the minister said that if the US government or the Fund-Bank duo restricted the inflow of foreign funds, the private business abroad would bring the necessary foreign exchange into the country. He said, "The private business in the US was not bound by the sanctions announced by the president as part of his statutory obligations under the US law."He said only the US had announced sanctions against India after the explosion of nuclear devices while no sanctions were imposed by the UN Security Council under its charter. As such the present sanctions by the US which are likely to `fizzle out soon' could not be described as `real sanctions', he said. India had not broken any international law or the provisions of the UN charter and it wasnot fair to insist that India should not have nuclear capabilities in defence when big nations `already had nuclear arsenals' and there was "every possibility of our neighbours becoming enemies overnight". Jethmalani said it appeared that India's foreign critics had "more friends in India than in their own country".Justifying his stand that the sanctions would not have any major impact on the economy, he said the US was a democracy and a secular state which believed in human rights just like India. "The US people would not allow a country like India to be hurt by the US sanctions," he added.
