ISLAMABAD, Feb 10 (APP): Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said that the approval of over 70,000 housing projects worth Rs 1.4 trillion so far will have an overall impact of Rs 7.3 trillion on construction industry besides creating 1.2 million jobs.
It is the government’s huge achievement that out of 80,000 applications, 35,420 applications amounting to Rs 130 billion have so far been approved and a total of Rs 46 billion has been disbursed to 13,407 applicants, he added.
The Prime Minister was chairing a meeting of the National Coordination Committee (NCC) on Housing, Construction and Development here.
The meeting was attended by Federal Ministers Shaukat Tarin, Fawad Chauhdry, Minister of State Farrukh Habib, Special Assistant to PM Dr. Shehbaz Gill, Governor State Bank, Chairman Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority (NAPHDA) Lt. Gen. ® Anwar Ali Haider, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ravi Urban Development Authority (RUDA) Imran Amin, Chief Secretaries of Punjab and Balochistan and other senior officials concerned.
The Prime Minister said that with applications worth Rs 7 billion being received weekly, Rs 4 billion were approved and Rs 2 billion was being disbursed every week which showed that the devised system was working efficiently.
He added that the government of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) had achieved a huge milestone regarding the provision of low cost housing to lower and middle income classes.
The Prime Minister said that the present government’s biggest challenge was to change the elitist mindset of financial institutions and ensure facilitation of common people in getting loans.
He, however, pointed that the data of loans approval and disbursement at an average of 3.6 million showed the middle and lower income classes as the biggest beneficiary of subsidized loans.
The Prime Minister further said that in the last three years of the government, a 148% increase in housing finance and expected approval of Rs 517 billion till December 2022 reflected the steps taken by the government to facilitate low cost housing and construction industry.
In line with the manifesto of PTI, the government was moving in the direction to add 1% every year in the housing finance against the country’s GDP that will result in the construction boom and provision of houses to the lower and middle income classed, he added.
The meeting was briefed that for the first time in country’s history, a sustainable ecosystem for low cost housing has been developed and implemented which had enabled the construction sector to achieve exponential growth.
The foreclosure law has been implemented in letter and spirit and long term loans (up to 20 years) with subsidized markup (as low as only 2%) were being given.
In addition to that a cost subsidy of Rs 300,000 for low income housing schemes and 90% tax waiver had resulted in encouraging the private sector, which was actively participating in the construction of housing units under the schemes.
The projects include urban, peri-urban, urban regeneration, government funded and private sector projects, it was told.
The meeting was also briefed about the transparent and automated process to receive and process the applications which had resulted in targeting the needful lower and middle income classes.
It was being ensured by the development of one window digital portal with automated application tracking system by development authorities.
The meeting was also briefed on figures regarding the total low cost housing construction activity so far after 2018.
The meeting was told that out of a total of 161,924 low cost housing units approved so far, 20,898 units have been completed and 45,191 units were under construction, which was significant bearing in mind that before the subsidies by the government, foreclosure law and low cost housing schemes by the PTI government, the sector was in shambles.
A breakup of the government financed low cost housing projects was also given according to which 4000 units in Farash Town (Islamabad), 4000 units in LDA City (Lahore), 1320 units in Jalozai (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), 245 units in Raiwind, 324 units in Sargodha and Chinniot and 1800 units at Angoori road (Islamabad) were being constructed with completion deadlines before the end of 2022.
The meeting was also told that a total of 2507 projects worth Rs 627 billion have been registered on FBR Portal under the Fixed Tax Regime which had an impact of Rs 3.135 trillion on the economy.
The Prime Minister directed to complete the projects in the defined timelines and emphasized to take steps to improve and ease the process for low cost housing projects.
