LAHORE -  The real estate consultants have demanded the government to announce a general amnesty scheme for investors in real estate across the country without further delay to stop investment outflow to UAE and other countries.

In a press statement issued here on Wednesday, Muhammad Ahsan Malik, the general secretary of Real Estate Consultants Association (RECA) DHA Islamabad and executive member of Federation of Realtors (FOR) Pakistan, said Pakistanis had invested billions of rupees in other countries due to absence of amnesty scheme and irrational taxation polices. He said that the new taxes enforced on the real estate in July 2016 had drastically affected the investment in the real estate sector and thousands of young people associated with this sector had become jobless.

He clarified that the government had recently taken some very positive steps to protect the investment in real estate sector which included the revision of the FBR evaluation rate in January, 2018 which was wrongly imposed in 2016.

“It’s a very positive step and we are extremely indebted to Advisor to Prime Minister for Revenue Haroon Akhtar Khan and Federal Minister for Commerce and Textile Industry Malik Muhammad Parvez for this, but without general amnesty scheme and reduction in taxes, the real estate could not flourish at all,” he added.

Ahsan Malik said that they wanted to pay tax. He requested that the government should consult the property dealers and real estate consultants before imposing any taxes in the real estate sector.

“The Real Estate Consultants Association (RECA) demands Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to withdraw 100 percent increase in taxes imposed on real estate in July 2016. The two percent service charges (commission) of the real estate consultants should be given legal protection, so that this business shall flourish,” Ahsan Mailk said.