ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Revenue Haroon Akhtar has said the matter to determine fair market evaluation of real estate would be resolved in consensus with the organisations doing business in this sector.
“We held meeting with the representatives of real estate from across the country and exchanged ideas and suggestions on the matter”, he said talking to a private news channel.
He said it was also suggested to constitute a committee which would conduct meetings to find way forward. “Our objective is not to disturb those in the real estate business, what we desire, is to ensure actual pricing of the property instead of DC value,” he said. “It does not mean that we shall run after every businessman but only those where we shall suspect that actual prices were hidden.”
He said this formula is in practice in the whole world and the federal government wanted to implement it in the country to raise revenue.
The federal government is the competent authority to fix tax on income of the property and it would be done by independent evaluators identified by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), he said.
Haroon said the government is cognizant that the property business involves hundreds of billion rupees and the government does not desire to discourage them. But, this is also not fair such a huge investment has no documentation and tax worth billions of rupees is evaded in this sector. They should also cooperate with the government and give the due share to the government in the form of tax, he added.
“We have received many suggestions during meeting with real estate bodies and we want to resolve the issue in consultation with stakeholders”, he said.
Haroon Akhtar said there was no truth in reports that the government is going to postpone the real estate tax law.
