Mumbai: The central government is formulating a subsidy scheme to provide loans to the economically weaker sections of the population, including those belonging to the minority community, for purchasing better quality houses.

"The government is in the process of formulating interest subsidy scheme for EWS category, including minority community, to provide them better quality houses," minister of housing and poverty alleviation Kumari Selja informed the Rajya Sabha.

For this, she said, the government has reclassified the income limits for various economic groups for availing loan from Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd.

"For the economically weaker sections, the new income ceiling is Rs3,300, for LIG the income slab ranges from Rs3,301 to Rs7,300, for MIG it is Rs7,301 to Rs14,500 while for HIG it is Rs14,501 and above," the minister said.

She said there is acute housing shortage for the economically weaker sections of the population with demand estimated at around 24.71 million in the country, adding that the middle income and higher income groups are comparatively better off with demand for houses estimated at .04 million.

"The Technical Group on Estimation has estimated housing shortage as 24.71 million for EWS and 2.89 million for lower income group category," the minister said.