High five for individuals on savings and housing

NEW DELHI: The common-man can cheer even though , Finance Minister P Chidambaram did not provide much relief in

, there are some measures to make saving attractive.

1. Incentives for home loan borrowers with a person taking a first time home loan up to Rs 25 lakh during the financial year 2013-14 will be allowed an additional tax deduction of interest of up to Rs 1 lakh.

2. A tax credit of Rs 2500 for Rs 2-5 lakh tax payers bracket.

3. Equity scheme made more attractive with allowing the first time investor to invest in mutual funds as well as listed shares and it can be done not in one year alone but in three successive years. The limit for investors wanting to invest in RGESS has also been raised from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 12 lakh.

4. Inflation-indexed bonds that will protect savings from inflation especially the savings of the poor and middle classes. These could be inflation-indexed bonds or inflation-indexed national security certificates. Details will be issued later.

5. More houses proposed by providing Rs 4000 crore to the fund in consultations with RBI proposed to provide Rs 6000 crore to the rural housing fund. Chidambaram also proposed to ask National Housing Bank to set up the Urban Housing Fund and in consultation with RBI. "I propose to provide Rs 2000 crore to the fund in 2013-2014," he said.

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