| Imran Khan urges investors to take benefit of limited time opportunity | Investors will not be asked for their source of income
| There will be 5pc interest rate for
5-Marla house while 7pc on 10-Marla
ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday announced that his government has decided to provide Rs30 billion subsidy for the Naya Pakistan Housing Project.
In his televised address after chairing the first meeting of first meeting of National Coordination Committee on Housing, Construction and Development, Prime Minister announced Rs.30 billion package for house-building and a one-window operation to facilitate builders.
In April, the Prime Minister had announced tax amnesty scheme for realty sector, allowing people to invest in the construction industry without disclosing source of income. “Take full advantage of the incentives before December 31 this year because afterwards we will not able to provide all exemptions due to international obligations like Financial Action Task Force (FATF)”, Imran Khan said.
Pakistan retained on the FATF grey list earlier this year and given more time in April amid coronavirus crisis to submit its performance report on the implementation of the global watchdog’s remaining recommendations. The Prime Minister said State Bank had also directed banks to fix 5 percent of their total portfolio for construction sector and under this initiative Rs 330billion will be fixed.
Prime Minister said he had formed a committee to remove procedural hurdles in the constructions industry and to step up work on his government flagship project, Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme.
Imran Khan said the world over; loans for the housing sector were easily available, while the process in Pakistan was quite cumbersome. He said the new
committee would also play its role in removing hiccups in the process relating to the State Bank of Pakistan and commercial banks on house-building finance.
He said in consultation with all the provinces, the federal government had decided to cut down the number of no objection certificates (NOCs) required for the construction industry.
He said a web portal would provide a one-window operation in that regard while certain time-limits had also been put in place to ensure there were no extraordinary delays in the process. The committee will meet every week to discuss all challenges faced by construction sector.
The prime minister said the objective of the committee was to provide low-cost housing to the people, who could not afford a house of their own. It would also simplify the laws related to the construction industry and for easing of loan disbursement.
He said under the subsidised scheme, the government will provide three hundred thousand rupees for each house to first 100 thousand units of Naya Pakistan Housing Program. He said the decision has been taken to reduce the cost burden on people with low income. The Prime Minister said government is focused on developing construction sector that can usher new era of employment opportunities in the country.
He said due to corona pandemic international economies are shrinking and only construction sector can boost economic activities in the country.
The Prime Minister said under International obligations, we can provide relief to the construction sector till 31st December of this year. He urged the investors to take benefit of this limited time opportunity. He said during this period, investors of the construction will not be asked for their source of income.
He said we have also fixed time limits for all approvals and reduced taxes. He said for 5 Marla house under Naya Pakistan Housing Program, people will pay just 5 percent interest rate while 7 percent on 10-Marla.