Builders threaten to stop work indefinitely

Urge federal govt to put off property valuation for one year

KARACHI: Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan (ABAD) Chairman Mohsin Sheikhani has urged the federal government to defer the property valuation exercise for one year, cautioning that if officials did not pay heed ABAD members will stop all construction activities for an indefinite period.

He also asked the Sindh government to withdraw the betterment charges imposed by the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), stated a press release. Sheikhani said more than 60% construction activities, involving an investment of more than Rs100 billion, had come to a halt because of the dual property valuation mechanism.



“If this mechanism is not abandoned until the next budget, all members of ABAD will be forced to stop their projects; to get a relief, we will also take the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to court,” he added.

For months, ABAD has raised objection over the immoveable property valuation mechanism of the FBR because it believes it is not possible to gather information about property values throughout the country in a very short span. ABAD insists that the district commissioner valuation mechanism is being followed for the past 63 years and any change takes time, therefore, a new system should not be imposed overnight.

Sheikhani pointed out that House Building Finance Company (HBFC) had suspended loan approvals for houses valuing more than Rs1.5 million and the loan amount had been restricted to Rs1.275 million.

“ABAD believes that this decision of HBFC is biased and politically motivated as almost all money with the company is being directed towards a particular province,” he said.

However, speaking to The Express Tribune in the first week of October, HBFC Managing Director Pervez Said had denied that the company was discriminating against any province in the disbursement of home loans.

Regarding the increase in betterment charges, the ABAD chairman said the fee was unbearable and it was being levied on those projects that had already paid development charges. He said the SBCA was not a development authority and had no right to levy development charges.



Sheikhani lamented that corruption had marred almost all sectors of the economy, especially the construction industry, which has to pay almost 7% of the cost of a project as bribe. “Ultimately, the burden of corruption is to be borne by the general public.”

Replying to a question, he said that Sui Southern Gas Company was not giving new gas connections to the residential societies developed by the builders despite a court order.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2016.

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