With the aim of providing housing facilities to every citizen, the government has simplified the tax system relating to investments in the country’s housing sector. This new system, the finance minister explained, would inject more dynamism into the stagnant housing sector.
Under the new system, investors will have to pay Tk. 5,000 per square metre up to 200 sq. metres for houses and flats situated at Gulshan Model Town, Banani, Baridhara, Motijheel Commercial Area and Dilkusha Commercial Area of Dhaka. The rate will be Tk. 7,000 per sq. metre above 200 sq. metres.
The rate will be Tk. 4,000 per sq. meter up to 200 sq. metres for houses and flats in Dhanmandi Residential Area, Defence Officers Housing Society (DOHS), Mahakhali, Lalmatia Housing Society, Uttara Model Town, Bashundhara Residential Area, Dhaka Cantonment, Kawran Bazar, Bijaynagar, Segunbagicha, Nikunja of Dhaka and Panchlaish, Khulshi, Agrabad and Nasirabad area of Chittagong. The rate will be Tk. 5,000 per sq. metre above 200 sq. metres.
In other areas of City Corporations, the rate will be Tk. 2,000 per sq. metre up to 200 sq. metres and Tk. 3,500 per sq. metre above 200 sq. metres. In the case of the paura sabha of any district headquarters, the rate will be Tk. 1,000 per sq. metre up to 200 sq. metres and Tk. 1,500 per sq. metre above 200 sq. metres.
In other areas, including upazilas, the rate will be Tk. 750 per sq. metre up to 200 sq. metres and Tk. 1,000 per sq. metre above 200 sq. metres. In case of more than one house or flat, the rate of tax will be an additional 20 per cent.
In case of purchase of plots and lands, the tax rate will be 10 per cent on the total value. In case of purchase of more than one plot and land, there will be a 20 per cent additional tax on the sum payable.
Finance minister AMA Muhith announced the new rates in his budget speech and added that these would simplify the tax system relating to investments in the housing sector. “I would also propose to reduce the rate of tax at source on real estate developers,” said the finance minister.
Providing housing facilities to all citizens in a densely populated country like Bangladesh poses a great challenge to the government, he said. In order to take this challenge head on, the government has taken various steps to encourage private housing sector apart from its own initiatives, he added.
-With The Independent input
