rawalpindi - President Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) Zahid Latif Khan on Wednesday has appealed to the Federal Government, Minister of State on Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal, Advisor on Revenue Miftah Ismail and Chairman FBR to stop harassing builders and developers as such tactics will discourage foreign and local investment in the real-estate sector and hurt the economic growth of the country.

He said that builders and developers are not against tax collection and broadening the tax base but on the pretext of expanding the tax net, tax authorities have started issuing notices to builders and developers for providing details of buyers of shops and flats. This was not a wise approach as it was creating harassment in the business community of real estate sector, he added.

RCCI chief said that seeking the details of property buyers from builders and developers is against the growth of construction industry. He said that due to such measures of tax authorities, investment in construction projects would be discouraged and narrowed down to just buying and selling in real estate sector. He said the builders and developers were already upset due to the current valuation methods of property and policies of tax authorities and it would force them to withdraw investment from the sector.

Zahid Latif said that after agriculture, the construction sector was the second largest employment sector whose growth was directly linked to the growth of other industries.

Many countries in the world were providing lucrative incentives to the real estate and construction industry in order to boost economic activities, but in Pakistan, the tax authorities was taking measures to create more difficulties for this industry.

He added that all the details were provided to FBR at the time of transfer of property while the builders and developers were paying gain tax and advance tax on the lease and registration of property.