KARACHI - Real estate agents representatives have facilitated government for approval of Amended Bill of Income Tax Ordinance 2001 by the National Assembly, terming it a step in the right direction to increase confidence of national and international real estate sector investors.
“This will increase number of tax filers and bring more revenue for government. Undocumented money will become documented now and transactions through banking channels will be multiplied. We hope the government will also take all stakeholders on board to resolve our other issues,” Pakistan Real Estate Investment Forum (PREIF) President Shaban Ilahi expressed these views while presiding a high level meeting of real estate agents representatives here at a local hotel. Meeting was also attended by General Secretary PREIF Ghazanfer Mehboob, Maj (r) Naveed Bajwa, Hassan Basharat, Imran Ilahi, Asghar Ali Bhutto, Jawed Rehman and Col (r) Mohammad Jawed.
Shaban Ilahi said that all stakeholders including PREIF have played productive role for formulating these amendments and its approval is a positive step. "This is the first step and we hope that other issues raised by stakeholders will also be addressed by government after necessary deliberations," he told.
“New amended bill will benefit real estate industry and its affiliated sectors at large. Construction industry will also experience a boom. Shaken confidence of investors will also be restored. Before approval of this bill, local investors were investing their money in foreign countries and overseas Pakistanis were also least interested to invest here. But now these both groups will be encouraged to invest in real estate sector in Pakistan, “President PREIF noted.
Shaban Ilahi said that as per government estimates, 80 to 90 percent undocumented money will become documented in three to five years which will give a boost to national economy and overall GDP. "New valuation done by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is not at par with market value in few city areas in the country which should be revised.
