FBR asked to revoke valuation rates of properties for 40 cities

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Finance has asked the FBR to revoke the valuation rates of properties for 40 cities and recommended fixing the valuation rates of immovable property in consultation with concerned stakeholders in the next 15 days.

The Senate panel held its meeting under the Chairmanship of Senator Talha Mehmood here at the Parliament House on Monday in which all members of unanimously passed a resolution for condemning the Sialkot incident.

All senators who spoke on the occasion were of the view that such acts of extremism had no place in Islam. They all demanded of the government to evolve a national consensus against such aggression and violence.

The committee praised the brave efforts of Malik Adnan and others who displayed the real spirit of Pakistan by risking their lives by stopping the violent mob. The chairman of the Senate panel was of the view that the real estate stakeholders offered the government to get plots at 50 percent price as it was an unwarranted move whereby the FBR had jacked up valuation rates by 700 to 800 percent without taking the concerned stakeholders into confidence. He said that when the economy was not performing well, why the FBR was taking such steps that were aimed at destroying the real estate sector.

The Chairman FBR, Dr. Ashfaq Ahmed, briefed the committee and said that the FBR’s field formations were assigned the task to undertake exercise for valuation of property in different areas of 40 cities.

He further stated that the FBR followed the mechanism for valuation of property which was practiced in the past and the FBR undertook this exercise despite lack of sufficient resources for a comprehensive on-ground assessment of valuation of properties. He said that he would discuss this issue with Adviser to PM on Finance and then valuation rates would be rationalized wherever it were jacked up beyond the ground realities.

The chairman committee directed the FBR officials to withdraw the recent SRO and urged the FBR officials to determine the value of immovable properties in consultation with relevant stakeholders in the next 15 days.

Upon this, Senator Kamil Ali Agha stated that the FBR increased the value of properties from 100 to 700 percent without any logical justification and rationale. Senior officials from the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and industries and members of other real estate organizations informed the committee that the FBR had jacked up the value of properties without any due deliberation and consultation with relevant stakeholders.

Senator Saleem Mandviwalla from the PPP said that instead of blaming the FBR, the issue should be resolved and added that the FBR was fixing property prices since the days of Pakistan People’s Party.