Prime Minister Announces Package For Construction Sector

Announcing the package for the construction sector, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that subsidy will be given on small houses and for the next five years, the interest rate on bank 5 and 10 marla houses will not be more than 5 and 7 per cent.

Referring to the construction sector in Islamabad, the Prime Minister said, “I am glad to announce that the subsidy we have given in the construction sector is worth Rs 186 billion.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) have registered on the portal, while there are 116 billion projects in draft form.

He said that the process of approval of 136 billion projects is underway in Punjab.

“We believe that the economic activity that will be generated from Punjab will be about 1500 billion activities which will create two and a half lakh jobs in Punjab,” the Prime Minister added.

He said that similar projects have been started in other places including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Karachi.

Imran Khan low-value houses for the salaried class is the biggest achievement of the government adding that for the first time in Pakistan, banks are financing even in low-value houses.

“Banks have assured us and the SBP that Rs 378 billion has been set aside for construction activities by December 2021,” he said.

He said that under the interest rate subsidy given to low-cost houses, the interest rate on 5 marla houses will not be more than 5% for the next five years while the interest rate on 10 marla houses will not be more than 7%.

He said that our government had decided to give a subsidy of Rs 30 billion to low-cost houses, ie out of the first one lakh houses to be built, a grant of Rs 3 lakh per house would be given to reduce their expenditure.

Imran Khan said that the Automated Approval Regime was a great achievement and CDE, LDA has done a lot of work on an automated system which has the advantage that the work which used to take months and years is now due to automated method. Will be done in a few weeks.

He said that new master plans of cities need to be formulated to stop their spread as agricultural lands are declining and as a result, we are facing a big problem of food security in the times to come.

He said that the exemption period has also been extended till June 30, 2021, for those who invest in the construction sector to disclose the sources of income, while the projects which were to be completed by September 30, 2023, have also been extended by one year.

Imran Khan said that we will fully support the construction industry and that is why we have extended this exemption to them while also removing the obstacles in the construction industry.