Minister of Housing and Water, Colin Croal, on Monday, revealed that the distribution of vouchers for the steel and cement subsidy will commence as early as next week.
“As early as next week they will commence the issuing of vouchers for that project,” Croal told reporters at the sidelines of an event on Monday afternoon.
According to the Housing Minister, to ensure transparency, a board has been set up to review the applications before distribution commences.
“There is a board that is dealing with those aspects of approval,” he said.
Suppliers of the building materials have already been secured and according to Croal, the goal is to ensure that there is one supplier within each administrative region.
“We have sought to ensure that we have suppliers from within the region,” he told reporters.
To date, there have been hundreds of applications for the subsidy. As a matter of fact, Croal pointed out that a team recently returned from Region Two with more than 100 applications.
As part of its commitment to making homeownership affordable, the government invested some $700 million in the Steel and Cement Housing Subsidy programme.
At the International Building expo last year, President Irfaan Ali announced that persons constructing homes at a value of $6 million or less will become eligible to receive steel and one sling of cement for the construction of the foundation.
Meanwhile, those building homes between $6 million to $25 million will be given two slings of cement.
To apply for the subsidy, persons are required to provide copies of relevant documents such as TIN certificates, proof of identification, marriage certificates (if applicable) and approved house plan from the various municipalities.
Other documents that are to be presented to be qualified are estimates for the home construction as well as proof of land acquired.
