Daily Times

Fulfilling a major demand of the construction industry, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday granted one-year extension in date to the fixed tax regime to boost economic activity and create employment.

The prime minister made the announcement and said the date has been extended till Dec 31, 2021. He described it a new year gift for the construction sector which was the key to offset negative impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the national economy. He also extended the date for disclosures of source of income by the investors till June 30, 2021 and the one for buyers till March 31, 2023.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, who made the announcement after chairing a meeting on the progress in the construction sector, said the date for completion of projects, has also been extended by one year. He had announced PTI government’s construction package, allowing people to invest in the construction sector without disclosing the source of income, in April this year.

According to the Federal Board of Revenue the fixed tax scheme is applicable to builders and developers, who opt for the scheme by registering their projects with the FBR. Builders and developers eligible for this fixed tax scheme include individuals, a company or an Association of Persons.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said so far 186 projects have been registered with the FBR, under the Construction Package, while projects worth another Rs 116 billion were in the pipeline. He said work on 163 projects has been launched in Punjab, while projects worth Rs 136 billion were in approval phase. He said it was expected that the measures would generate an economic activity worth Rs 1,500 billion and create 250,000 jobs in Punjab alone.

Imran Khan said similar projects were in different phases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Karachi and Baluchistan. He mentioned the approval of the foreclosure law and said now the banks were extending loans for construction of houses for the low-income groups. He said under the scheme the banks would extend loans worth Rs 378 billion by December 2021.

He said the government would provide of Rs 30 billion as subsidy on the loan for markup for the low cost houses, with a maximum of 5 percent on five-marla houses and 7 per cent on ten-marla houses. He said the government would provide a grant of Rs 300,000 each for the construction of first 100,000 houses. He said the major civic development authorities like CDA, LDA etc had initiated automated approvals and said the master-plans of all major cities were being revised. He said the government would also be taking into account the issue of food security due to the haphazard growth of the cities, which otherwise would reduce the cultivable land.

Imran Khan said the government was also digitizing records of lands initially in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore, while it was also in the process of digitizing all government lands as it was dead capital, and needs to be taken into account. He said the PTI government was the first, after 1960s, to work on promotion of industry for revenue generation, retirement of debt and creation of jobs.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan has approved the online agri-dashboard developed by National Security Division, which will monitor food prices and availability of commodities at national, provincial and district levels. The dashboard will use authentic indicators to prevent any food crisis and will also be effective in preventing hoarding and profiteering.

The prime minister directed need for urgent measures to control inflation of items such as flour, sugar and pulses. He stressed the need to increase exports and find local alternative to imports to ensure increase of current account surplus.

This was the first of the series of weekly meetings meant to review progress of priority sectors. PM’s Special Assistant Dr Moeed Yousuf, secretaries of the ministries concerned and senior officials attended the meeting, whereas chief secretaries of the four provinces participated via video-link. On the direction of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the areas which have been given a priority status include food security, agriculture, electricity, manpower, foreign investment, privatization, information technology and exports to implement major reforms in six sectors that faced neglect in the past. According to PM Office, from now onwards, there will be a weekly review meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, where he will be given briefings on the progress of these meetings with special focus on each sector.