Ex-chief's arrest: Membership now subject to stringent scrutiny processes: ABAD chief

Following the arrest of former chairman Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD), the scrutiny for memberships has been made more stringent, said ABAD Chairman Junaid Ashraf Taloo, here Thursday. Speaking at a pre-budget seminar held at ABAD House here, Taloo said the association had adopted a strict policy for membership and made it further stringent after the arrest.
Moreover, he said ABAD kept proposing several measures for the revival of construction industry but the authorities concerned failed to pay heed to it, despite claiming to have evolved policies for the industry. He stressed upon policies' implementation, saying that although finance minister had termed the lack of policies' implementation as major impediment towards revival of the country's economy, policies related to construction industry were astonishingly being ignored during his tenure.
Earlier, Salim Kassim Patel, former vice chairman ABAD in his speech elaborated budget proposals for federal and provincial governments. He said that capital value tax and prices of building materials should be rationalized to support construction industry. He termed the increase in construction activities as vital for the revival of economy. He said the government had to take prompt and drastic steps to reduce construction cost.
He said the government had imposed 5 percent regulatory duty on steel billets, which resulted in increase in prices of steel products including steel bars. It is pertinent that the government should abolish regulatory duty or it should allow builders and construction companies to import steel products and steel bars without any regulatory duty.
Salim said revolutionary steps should be initiated in the federal budget to increase housing finance. In order to provide momentum to construction of low-cost housing units, finance should be made available on low markup. In addition, the government should also provide compensation for construction of low-cost housing.
He said the ratio of mortgage finance to GDP is lowest in Pakistan which is just 0.66 percent. The finance minister has already announced setting up of a housing mortgage re-finance company. It is essential that federal budget should include further incentives for this purpose. Loan taken by individual allottees for paying installments should be considered as expenses in their accounts. The financial institutions should be encouraged to issue loans on a markup, which is less than the market rates.
Steps should be taken to increase mortgage to GDP ratio to 5 percent. It should be made mandatory for commercial banks and financial institutions to reserve a minimum of 5 percent of the portfolio for housing finance. Vice Chairman Mohammad Hanif Memon and Chairman Southern Region Mohammad Hassan Bakshi also spoke on the occasion.