Muhammad Hassan Bakshi chairman Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan (ABAD) on Monday urged the Prime Minister Imran Khan to appoint chairman for his Task Force of Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme from private sector.
Speaking at a press conference held at ABAD house here, Bakshi said that chairman ABAD and its patron-in-chief Mohsin Sheikhani had been nominated for 17-member task force for Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme and urged the PM to appoint chairman for this Task Force from private sector.
Furthermore, he said allied industries of construction sector should be regulated to ensure reduction in prices of cement, steel bars, tiles and other construction materials and make Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme a big success.
Talking about the financial model of the scheme, he said that 20 per cent of the total price of the housing unit would be paid by the allottees on monthly instalments while 40 percent would be provided by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to commercial banks at the rate of one percent markup, which would be given to the allottees at the rate of 4 to 5 percent and remaining 40 percent amount would be financed at KIBOR plus 3 percent. Furthermore, he said that around 100,000 applications of 500 residential projects were pending at concerned utility departments after the decision made by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the construction of high-rise buildings and pleaded the chief justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar to revisit the decision in order to provide relief to the ailing construction industry. He said that we were not keen to monopolise this scheme but wanted to bring all builders and developers under one umbrella hence only ABAD members would be allowed to work for this scheme.
Bukshi also requested the government to restore Fixed Tax Regime (FTR) for the construction sector and added that members of ABAD would construct and hand over possession of houses within one and half year with minimal profit under Naya Pakistan Housing scheme. He feared that this scheme could not yield desired results if the government failed to restrict foreign investors for joint ventures with local investors and added that Dubai like housing model would be implemented under this scheme.