New Delhi, Mar 8 (UNI) There is a shortfall of 24.71 million houses in urban areas of the country as of 2007, a technical group set up by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation has estimated.

Stating this, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja told the Rajya Sabha today that the technical group headed by Prof Amitabh Kundu, Dean, Jawaharlal Nehru University, was constituted by her Ministry to estimate the urban housing shortage in the country.

Regarding incentives for the housing sector, the Minister said in a written reply that various fiscal incentives had been provided in Income Tax Act, 1961 as also customs and excise duty concessions for the housing sector.

Ms Selja said 100 per cent foreign direct investment in housing and urban infrastructure under the automatic route had been permitted to liberalise the housing sector.

In reply to another question, she said slum development was a state subject, and pointed out that, ''the state governments formulate specific plans, programmes and schemes for development of slums in various cities as per their priorities and make necessary provisions in their respective State Plans.'' UNI SD AT HS1506