Muhammad Naveed, Senior Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry has said that facilitating the growth of real estate sector was crucial for promoting commerce, industry, growth, employment and poverty reduction and called upon the government to reduce heavy taxes imposed on this sector in the coming budget in order to trigger the economic growth of the country.

He said this while addressing a meeting of Gulberg Association, Islamabad.

Muhammad Naveed said that the growth of about 250 ancillary industries in Pakistan including cement, steel, brick, and timber and building material was dependent on real estate sector, but the increase in taxes on this sector has slumped the business of all these allied industries.

He said due to this situation, many investors were leaving the real estate sector and emphasized that government should pay urgent attention to resolve issues of this sector to facilitate its better growth as its growth would yield multiple benefits for the economy including more jobs creation, increase in tax revenue, growth of trade & industrial activities and the overall economy.

Speaking at the occasion, Malik Najeeb, President, Gulberg Association, and Islamabad highlighted various issues of real estate sector. He said increase in taxes on property has badly affected real estate business and urged that government should revise these taxes to provide relief to realtors. He said that CDA had started developing some new sectors about 12 to 15 years ago, but the same have not been developed as yet. He urged that CDA should set timeframe for the development of new sectors and ensure their completion within the set timelines as delay in their development was causing losses to the investors and the people.

He said CDA has also increased commercialization fee on real estate sector that has created additional problems and urged that CDA should revise the fee to facilitate the business activities in this important sector of the economy.