Monitoring Desk
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has announced a relief package for the construction sector, saying that it was necessary to maintain ‘a balance’ between the lockdown and economic activity.
“Main objective of the incentives is to to provide employment to the labourers so that they can be saved from “hunger and the coming difficult circumstances,” he told a group of media men after after chairing a meeting at the National Command Centre office in the capital Islamabad on Friday.
Imran Khan said that persons or entities who invested in the construction sector this year will not be asked about their source of income. “The government has decided to agree to the demand of the construction sector and has introduced the fixed tax,” , adding that this move would bring down the amount of tax to be paid.
He said that investment in Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme, would enjoy exemption to the extent of 90% of the tax on it.
He said that withholding tax on materials and services had been abolished in the informal sector. “Tax will be collected only on steel and cement, mainly because these are the formal sectors,” he said.
PM Imran said that the government will not collect any capital gains tax from “any family that wants to sell its house”. He announced a Rs30bn subsidy for the Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme, saying that on the one hand, it will regulate economic activity and on the other, ensure houses for the poor were also built.
The prime minister said that the government ensuring that the construction sector was given the industry status and announced the formation of The Construction Industry Development Board. “An institution will be formed, for the first time, to promote the construction industry in Pakistan,” he said.
