The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 15.07.2014 Tuesday made a major announcement to boost demand for infrastructure and housing. RBI said, banks would not have to maintain cash reserve ratio (CRR) or statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) and will not have to meet priority- sector lending targets for funds raised through bonds for extending credit to these sectors. While the exemption from CRR and SLR requirements was announced by the Finance Minister in his Budget speech, the banking regulator further sweetened the deal by including loans for affordable housing. Under the new definition of affordable housing, loans of up to ₹ 50 lakh in metros for houses valuing up to ₹ 65 lakh and those of up to ₹ 40 lakh for houses valuing up to ₹ 50 lakh in all other cities are now part of affordable housing.
