KARACHI: HBFC to resume activity soon, says minister
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Dec 22: The House Building Finance Corporation will soon resume its operations and allow loans for housing projects.
This was disclosed by the minister for housing and works, Kashmir affairs and Northern Areas, Abbas Sarfaraz Khan, at the silver jubilee convention 2001 of the Pakistan Engineering Council in a local hotel on Saturday morning.
He added that not only the present loaning capacity of the HBFC of Rs1.2 billion annually would be increased to Rs7 billion in the next five years but the corporation would also prepare special loaning packages for low-income projects at low markups.
He also told the audience that the cabinet had approved that all government departments and organizations would be directed to engage local consultants and construction companies, irrespective of the source of financing, on projects where local expertise was available.
He added that when the cabinet had approved the national housing policy earlier this year, it had accepted and approved three most critical recommendations put forward by the Pakistan Engineering Council.
Mr Khan noted that the national housing policy 2001 had dealt with all the major critical issues, including land, housing, finance, construction services sector, infrastructure, building and zoning regulations.
Under the policy, he explained, subsidized land would be provided to private developers and development agencies and the subsidy would be passed onto low-income groups.
In addition, state land would be identified for rural housing in and around existing settlements and would be given free to the rural poor.
The minister said part of the sale proceeds of valuable public land would be set aside to subsidize plots for low-income housing. All new construction of housing on plots measuring 150 square yards and flats having an area of 1,000 square feet (or less) would be exempted from all types of taxes for five years.
Mr Khan observed that other critical area which, if made available, could revive and revitalize the housing construction industry which was nearly a two-billion-dollar industry on an annual basis. The State Bank had already issued instructions to financial institutions, banks and DFIs to extend mortgage loans, project loans, etc.
“Foreclosure laws have been put in place which would greatly help financial institutions to enter the housing market. A number of other incentives and initiatives, including issuance of long- term bonds, are being offered to DFIs. Insurance companies and other institutions have been allowed to invest in the housing sector.”
The chairman of the Pakistan Engineering Council, Dr Jameel Ahmad Khan, told the audience the president of Pakistan had given his assent to the PEC Act on Jan 10, 1976.
He said: “The federal minister for science and technology has been lamenting that the universities of engineering and technology have not produced practically any PhDs so far. This is true. However, he comfortably overlooks the prime reason for such a lapse. The universities of science and technology were never provided and budgetary support since their inception to offer postgraduate programmes, particularly research-oriented ones. In contrast to this, general universities have been exclusively looking after postgraduate studies and research.”
Earlier, the chief coordinator, Moein Khan, delivered the welcome address.
The Pakistan Engineering Council also gave away pride of performance and excellence awards.
