The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has proposed tax reduction for developing of employee welfare scheme & Low income group (EWS/LIG) houses in the Budget 2013.

In a statement that listed FICCI's proposals for the development of real estate sector, the chamber said, "considering the need to provide affordable houses at a very fast pace in the country, new construction technology is required (such as aluminum form work or precast technology)."

"Currently most of these technologies are being imported and have high taxes levied on them. The customs duty/taxes paid for importing these technologies vary in the range of 20-25%," FICCI added.

FICCI said that this prohibits the use of these technologies and hence the pace of development of affordable housing as the need of hour is to reduce these taxes for the development of housing for employee welfare scheme and Low income group segments.