Loans for construction industry: Govt removes banks’ reservations

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday said the government had removed all the reservations of banks and empowered the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to provide immediate subsidy – announced by the government – on loans given by the banks for housing.

He gave these directions while chairing a weekly meeting of the National Coordination Committee for Housing, Construction, and Development here.

Information Minister Senator Shibli Faraz, Special Assistants Malik Amin Aslam, Lt Gen (R) Asim Saleem Bajwa, Syed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari, Dr Shahbaz Gul, Governor SBP Dr Reza Baqir, Chairman New Pakistan Housing Authority Lt Gen (R) Anwar Ali Haider, and presidents of all the major banks attended the meeting.

Imran maintained that the issue of foreclosure laws was being effectively pursued and directed the banks to make applications for construction of houses easy and convenient so that the low and middle-income people could avail themselves of this facility to the maximum.

Expressing satisfaction over the commitment of banks to play a dynamic role in the construction sector, the prime minister said construction sector guaranteed economic growth adding that the development of construction sector would create a number of lucrative business opportunities for the banks.

Briefing the participants on the progress made by the banks in the field of construction with regard to easy disbursement of loans and funds, the president of Pakistan Banks Association said favorable policies and facilitation of the government had encouraged the private banks.

“All banks are committed to promoting construction, especially for the low-income and middle-income people,” he said.

Presidents of Bank of Punjab and Bank Al-Falah gave a briefing on the products to be introduced for promotion of housing construction under the New Pakistan Housing Programme.

The presidents of other banks informed the prime minister that products had been developed by the banks for promotion of construction, which would be introduced soon.

Meanwhile, Advisor on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan called on prime minister and held consultations on various constitutional, political, and legal matters.

He also presented the new parliamentary calendar of PTI government’s third year to the prime minister.

Meantime, the prime minister also called for paying special attention to automation in tax assessment, collection, and refund system.

He was chairing a review meeting on the ongoing reforms in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) here.

Minister for Industries Muhammad Hammad Azhar, Minister for Information Senator Shibli Faraz, Minister for Planning Asad Umar, Finance Advisor Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Trade Adviser Abdul Razak Dawood, Advisor on Institutional Reforms Dr Ishrat Hussain, Special Assistant on Information Lt Gen (R) Asim Saleem Bajwa and other senior officers participated in the meeting.

The chairman FBR briefed the prime minister on the ongoing reforms in the Board and the progress made so far. The reforms are aimed at ensuring transparency in the organization, simplifying the tax system, introducing automation, increasing the tax base and ensuring every possible facility for the business community, says a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) here.

Imran said promotion of tax culture in the country, creation of facilities for taxpayers, removal of reservations of business community and cleansing the FBR of corrupt elements were the top priorities of the government.

He said special attention should be paid to automation in the system of tax assessment, collection, and refunds. In this regard, he directed that the tax form should be simplified on priority basis for individuals, companies, and especially small and medium enterprises.

Regarding the ongoing reforms in various sectors of the FBR, the prime minister directed that timelines be set for achieving the targets as well as setting progress targets on them.

Emphasizing the importance of effective measures to curb cross-border smuggling, the prime minister directed the FBR to make arrangements for effective surveillance of all crossing points along the border.

Meanwhile, in another step to facilitate the expatriate Pakistanis, Imran approved the launch of Roshan Digital Account for overseas Pakistanis.

The initiative has been taken on the instructions of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

In a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, a briefing was given on Roshan Digital Account and the facilities available under it.

The State Bank of Pakistan is introducing Roshan Digital Account in collaboration with eight major banks. Roshan Digital Account will be launched in the first week of September.

Under this move, Pakistanis living abroad will be able to open their account in any bank of the country easily and in minutes while various facilities including remittances, bill payment, and investment will be easily available.

Gilani appreciated the efforts of governor SBP and the participating private banks in introducing the Roshan Digital Account to facilitate Pakistanis abroad and said Pakistanis abroad were the most valuable asset of the country.

“Providing all possible facilities to these Pakistanis and their families who have contributed to the development of the country away from home is the top priority of the government,” he maintained.

The prime minister is also set to launch Sehat Insaf Card for entire Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday (today) for providing health insurance cover of Rs1 million to all the families.

Calling it a historic development in extending quality healthcare to the people, the Prime Minister’s Office said KP would be the first province where every family would be given health insurance.

The card would entitle the beneficiary family to avail itself of medical treatment of up to Rs1 million in government, as well as private hospitals.

Earlier, in the first phase, around 40 percent of KP families were availing themselves of the facility.

In this regard, the prime minister Thursday congratulated the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for giving universal health insurance coverage to all KP-domiciled citizens despite financial problems.

In tweets, he said, “Congratulations to KP govt that despite financial problems they have taken a bold step of giving universal health insurance coverage of Rs1 mn per family to all KP-domiciled citizens. This is in line with our Founding Father’s vision for Pak & a first step towards welfare state”.

“This policy is only prevalent in a few developed states & not in the USA. I feel proud of our KP govt for taking this lead & hope all other provinces will follow suit. We are moving to do the same at the federal level,” he added.