Govt to provide 50 percent subsidy for affordable housing units: NA told

Jan 15, 2020: Minister for Housing and Works Tariq Bashir Cheema Wednesday told the National Assembly that the government was planning to provide 50 percent subsidy on building of affordable housing for low income employees with substantial grants from Italy and Japan amounting to billions of rupees.

Responding to a question of member National Assembly Shazia Marri, he said efforts were being made to bring down the interest rates on housing loans and mortgage to preferably in between seven and nine percent.

In this regard, discussions with Federal Board of Revenue, State Bank of Pakistan and World Bank were underway, he added.

He said in order to enable an individual to pay back the loan and mortgage installment to the bank, it was being proposed that the size of monthly installment should be equal to the monthly rent being paid by an individual.

He said the Naya Pakistan Housing Authority would undertake efforts to build five million houses.

The minister said a previous government in 1995 banned construction of new housing units for the government employees in Islamabad.

At present, 29,000 federal government employees were using the government residences and same number of employees were still in the waiting list.

During the question hour, the Speaker asked the officers of ministries to ensure their presence in the house and said their attendance would be made part of the service record.

APP