LAHORE - Speakers at a seminar have urged the government to form special policies and introduce soft taxation regime for the real estate sector of the country. Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry arranged the seminar on house & real estate on Tuesday. LCCI acting President Faheem-ur-Rehman Saigal, Chairman Al-Jalil Developers Nasrullah Waraich, Prof Jason Pomeroy, Yaqoob Tahir Izhar, Akber Sheikh, Mian Abuzar Shad, Chairman Federal Task Force Zaigham Rizvi and other experts addressed the seminar.
“Pakistan is the only country in the region where residential area is expanding every day. No fundamental change in construction technologies has been seen since independence. In 1965-66, Singapore was a worse slum of the world. But now there are excellent community structures”, speakers said. “In Pakistan, real estate is 2nd largest sector in context of employment but the only need is to bring it in formal economy”, they added.
Faheem-ur-Rehman Saigal said that real estate was important sector of the economy which should be protected through conducive policies and soft taxation regime. He said that this sector will not only attract local investors but also expatriates. He said that mushroom growth of housing societies was eating up agriculture land and being an agrarian country, Pakistan cannot afford it. This issue can be addressed by horizontal residential buildings.
He said that teal estate was a dynamic sector and has the ability to attract huge foreign investment. Adverse policies and heavy taxation has created catastrophe-like circumstances, he said. He said that government cannot achieve economic targets without due support of the business community. He said that no breathing space has been left for the business community because of the severe issues like bank account attachment, political instability and heavy taxation on the trade & industry.