Association of real estate businessmen Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) has demanded the continuation of the opportunity of investment of undisclosed money or whitening black money in the real estate sector.
At the same time, the association also made demands for establishing a refinancing fund of Tk 2,00 billion for the real estate sector along with reduction of the registration cost of land and flats as well as the cost of construction materials.
Alamgir Shamsul Alamin, president of REHAB, made these demands at a press conference, organised by the association at a city hotel on Saturday afternoon.
Among others, senior vice president of REHAB Inthekhabul Hamid, vice presidents Kamal Mahmud, Nazrul Islam, Shareef Ali Khan, Mohammad Sohel Rana and several directors of the association were present at the event.
In the budget of FY 2020-21, the government had given a ‘special’ opportunity of investment of undisclosed money or whitening black money in the real estate sector by paying 10 per cent of tax.
However, that facility was announced to be revoked in the latest proposed budget of FY 2022-23. In this situation, REHAB made the demand to retain the facility like before.
During the press conference Alamgir Shamsul Alamin said, “In the budget proposal we had emphasised the most on the issue of continuing the opportunity of investment of undisclosed money without facing any questions. However, our demand has not been considered.”
“At present 10 to 12.5 per cent is charged for the registration of lands or flats. We had proposed to decrease it to 7 per cent. If registration costs are lowered, buyers will be encouraged to disclose accurate prices of lands. As a result, undisclosed money will be reduced as well. But, this demand too was not considered," the REHAB president added.
On the issue of the formation of a special fund for housing loans he said, “We have been demanding the formation of a refinancing fund of Tk 200 billion with the name ‘Housing Loan’ for a few years now. There is no reflection of the formation of this fund in the proposed national budget.”
The REHAB president noted that the real estate sector might be affected as none of the demands was taken into the consideration in the proposed budget.
REHAB has expressed its concern over the proposal of imposing extra tariff on quite a few construction materials including rods.
Leaders of the association said the price of MS rod, one of the key materials of the real estate sector, has gone up many folds in the last few months.
"Under the current global situation we wanted the duty-tax on the raw materials of steel to be reduced," a REHAB leader said.
They further said instead of that, the VAT on billets and rods has been increased by Tk 200 on the sales level. Meanwhile, the duty-tax on the import of lift has been increased from 11 per cent to 30 per cent. Besides, extra duty has been imposed on different construction materials including different types of wire, pipes, GI fittings etc.
Real estate businessmen said during the press conference, if the prices of these construction materials go up all of a sudden in a single jump, flat prices will increase even further. So, they have urged the government to take effective steps to decrease the prices of construction materials.