Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2018-01-02

Expanding the beneficiary base of the Concessionary Loan Scheme 'Sonduru Piyasa'

- The Concessionary Loan Scheme 'Sonduru Piyasa' was proposed by the Budget‑2017, to provide funds up to Rs.200,000 to the low income beneficiaries who make efforts to expand the houses below 750 square feet and to complete them but find it difficult to do so due to financial constraints . It has been planned to provide benefits to 100,000 loan recipients by the year 2020 and the number of loan recipients registered under this Loan Scheme by 2017‑12‑14 is 3,354.

The Ministry of Housing and Construction has pointed out that since the floor area of the houses belonging to most of the persons with low income and old house owners outside the limits of the urban areas exceeds 750 square feet, they are not qualified to benefit from the loan scheme. As such, the proposal made by Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, the Minister of Finance and Mass Media, to raise the floor area of the houses of the persons with low income up to 1,000 square feet, with the objective of increasing the number of beneficiaries entitled to receive loans under the 'Sonduru Piyasa' Loan Scheme, was approved by the Cabinet.