Demand for allowing investment of undisclosed money in real estate

Real estate sector demanded the government to allow undisclosed money be invested on buying apartments and plots. They made the demand at a pre-budget discussion in Dhaka on Monday. National Board of Revenue organised the meeting attended by representatives from housing, small and medium enterprises and construction sectors. NBR Chairman Md Nojibur Rahman presided over the meeting. Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry Advisor Manzur Ahmed was present as special guest. The real estate sector demanded bringing amendment to the 19(B) section of Income Tax Ordinance 1984. They said the investors cannot enjoy the current offers because of the present section and urged to make the law “time-befitting.” According to the law, the untaxed money holders can legalise the money through construction or purchase of residential buildings or apartments by paying tax at varying rates of different cities and areas in the country up to Tk7,000 a square metre starting from Tk600. But the money should be derived from legitimate sources, the law says. “The scope of investment of undisclosed money should be provided with a provision of not raising any questions by any of the government authorities regarding the source of income of the investor in case of purchasing first apartment,” said Liakat Ali Bhuiyan, First Vice-President of Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh. He demanded tax and registration fees for flats and plots be reduced to 7% from existing 14% to help the real estate sector overcome the existing crisis. Liakat made a suggestion to introduce five-year tax holiday for cities and 10 years for outskirts of the cities. He demanded launching of refinancing scheme at single digit interest rate by Bangladesh Bank and formation of Tk20,000 crore fund in this regard. Bangladesh Paper Mills Association representatives urged the government to stop false declaration in the case of import of news prints. They demanded exemption from VAT and reduction of duty rate on chemical imports as raw materials. Agro-processing industry representatives demanded 25% import duty on diversified agro foods instead of existing 10%.