‘More taxes on Pakistan real estate to give rise to hunger, poverty’

KARACHI: United Defence Clifton Estate Agents Association (UDCEAA) President Raja Mazhar Hussian said here on Friday that 75 manufacturing industries were directly connected with the real estate business and hundreds of other professions related to it indirectly, said a press release.

Reacting to the recent addresses of Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Shaukat Tarin, he said if a tax was imposed on the real estate sector, unemployment would increase and hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis would become jobless.

He added that transaction of foreign remittances would also be stopped. As a result, banks, stock exchanges, currency exchange and other businesses would be affected badly, he said, adding that there would be more recession in these sectors.

Talking about the importance of real estate business, he said real estate was the only business sector where assets of one’s whole life were found and people planned theirs and their forthcoming generations’ future by investing in real estate.

He added that more taxes on real estate would directly affect 75 manufacturing industries like cement, steel, paint, glass, tiles, sanitary, electric/copper wires, furniture, electronic appliances, decoration items, import and export, and connected with it professions and servicing businesses like crush, sand, architects, contractors, engineers, labour, heavy machinery operators, nurseries, gardeners, security companies, real estate agents and documentation workers.

He feared that hundreds of thousands of experts and employees would become jobless because of that.He said Tarin should keep it in view that there was already a burden of taxes and duties on the real estate sector like the buyer had to pay the transfer fee, capital value tax, provincial tax, Cantt board tax, etc, before making transaction with any society/authority.

He said this budget was not citizen-friendly but citizen enemy. The government should devise policies to reduce taxes on the real estate instead of imposing more taxes on it, he added. Mazhar appealed to the president, prime minister, adviser to the PM on finance, MNAs, senators, Sindh governor and chief minister to look into the matter and save the economy. He called for decreasing the taxes on real estate, so that it could support the economy to revive and boost business opportunities in Pakistan.
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