mumbai the realty industry today welcomed the move in budget to allow external commercial borrowings ecbs in the lowcost housing segment which was one of the long pending demands of the developers saying it will give fillip to the already struggling sector budget at et budget 2012 union budget live union budget blog railway budget budget news economic survey of india the move to allow ecbs for lowcost housing projects is commendable as it will give a fillip to the sector which was reeling under financial shortage jones lang lasalle infia chairman and country head anuj puri said there is a shortage of 263 million housing units in the country and this move will help in creating more housing stock he added the finance minister has also proposed reduction in the withholding tax on ecb interest from 20 to 5 per cent the budget announced a slew of other initiatives for the sector including setting up of credit guarantee trust fund to ensure better flow of institutional credit for housing loans enhancing provisions under rural housing fund from rs 3000 crore to rs 4000 crore extending the scheme of interest subvention of 1 per cent on housing loan up to rs 15 lakh where the cost of the house does not exceed rs 25 lakh for another year and enhancing the limit of indirect finance under the priority sector lending from rs 5 to rs 10 lakh the extension of interest subvention scheme and increase in provision under rural housing fund are likely to boost the demand for rural and affordable urban housing further reduction in the withholding tax on ecb interest would help the sector in assessing cheaper funding icra rating senior vicepresident rohit inamdar said the industry however raised concerns over the hike in service tax from 10 per cent to 12 per cent saying it is likely to lead to rise in property prices