The Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh on Sunday placed a nine-point demand before the government with a view to flourishing the sector overcoming their existing problems.
The Association leaders placed the demands when they met finance minister AMA Muhith at his secretariat office. REHAB president Nasrul Hamid Bipu led the delegation.
The REHAB demands include re-introducing the provision for allowing investment of undisclosed money in the real estate sector as the section 19 (B) of the law to this effect was repealed in 2011.
Their other demands include immediate formation of a Tk 1,500-crore special fund, styled ‘Housing Loan’, to protect the housing sector through providing low-interest loans to the buyers of flats, lowering the income tax rates for the developers to a rational level considering high land value and price hike of construction materials.
The REHAB demands also include not to re-fix VAT for the housing sector, reducing registration related taxes and duties, introducing secondary market system at nominal registration cost, importing fire safety and other safety materials for buildings without duty, exempting the developers from collecting supplier VAT and Tax at source, and providing tax rebate for ‘Leadership in Energy and Environment Design Certified’ buildings.
Besides, the association also demanded rescheduling the bank loans of its members for one year.
In response, the finance minister said he would consider their demands as the government would try to lift this sector as it had suffered from various problems, including that of electricity and gas connections.
He also noted that a lot of investment in this sector had remained stuck up for various reasons.
-With New Age input
