Here are the highlights of the country's broad housing policy for the next year.
- Free 750-sq. ft plots for homeless families and poorest of poor
- Development of at least 1000 clusters (housing schemes) each of 500 houses for low-income families by the government
- Housing finance will be provided to general public with a total subsidy of 3.5 billion Rs.
- Prime Minister’s Housing Finance Scheme will provide credits to families at a mark up rate of 8 %.
- Housing schemes similar to Ashiyana Housing Scheme will be developed
- Tax will be collected from builders and developers (for example, Bahria Town): Rs.50 per sq. ft. of the constructed area; or Rs.100 per square yard of the developed land
It means on one side, government will launch low income housing programs but on the other side, the price of housing in private estates like housing societies will increase due to new tax. I paste below the excerpts from the tax-speech related to Housing. The points were copied by searching words 'housing' and 'land' in the speech text.
Housing
33. A ‘roof over the head’ is the right of every Pakistani. Unfortunately, the housing gap is rising ever so fast in the country. While the private sector land developers have catered for the needs of the middle and upper-middle classes, nothing has been done to provide decent housing for the low and lower-middle classes. With no prospect of profitmaking, it
is quite understandable that the private sector remained oblivious to the needs of these otherwise very important societal groups. During our last tenure, we introduced housing schemes for the poorest of poor throughout the country, especially in the rural and semi-urban areas. Under these schemes, land was provided free of cost. Although Ministry of Housing and Works is developing the detailed plan, I would like to share the main features of the policy on provision of housing to the poor:
(1) Wherever feasible, 3-Marla housing schemes will developed on government land for the homeless, to whom plots will be given free of cost
(3) To ensure cost-effective access to credit for housing, government will be picking up a portion of the financing cost on behalf of the borrower. A provision of Rs.3.5 billion is kept in the budget for this purpose;
(4) Schemes on the model of Ashiyana Housing Scheme will also be developed in which the government will provide opportunities to low income families to own their house on payment of easy installments.
PART-III New Programs for Youth
(7) Prime Minister’s Housing Finance Scheme: Under this scheme, a mortgage facility of Rs. 1.5 million to Rs. 5.0 million will be offered at a mark-up rate of 8%. Fifty thousand
people will benefit from this scheme.
Tax:
(4) The construction sector contributes Rs.1 billion to the national exchequer, which is not proportionate to its potential. Its taxation is normally spread over multiple years depending upon the period of construction. In order to simplify taxation of construction sector minimum tax on builders and developers is proposed. The tax shall be paid at a the rate of Rs.50 per sq. ft. of the constructed area; or Rs.100 per square yard of the developed land, as the case may be.
Access the complete 2013-14 Budget Speech at
http://www.finance.gov.pk/budget/FinalBudgetSpeech_13_14_english.pdf
and
http://www.finance.gov.pk/budget/FinalBudgetSpeech_13_14_urdu.pdf