April 22, 2006	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 23, 1427

KARACHI, April 21: The Taiser Town scheme proved a windfall for the banks, which are charging up to Rs200 for making a pay order, and the city government which increased the application form price by four times after the overwhelming public response to the first scheme.

Thousands of applicants make long queues daily in front of the Allied Bank, authorised to receive applications for 120 sq yard plots in Taiser Town scheme launched by the city government for lower income people, who would collectively lose millions without an inch of a land.

According to the applicants banks have been charging different rates for making a pay order. The minimum fee charged was Rs50 for the account holders of a bank, while most of the banks charged Rs200 per pay order.

The overwhelming response to the first scheme of 80 sq yards plots had attracted about 400,000 applications for about 34,000 plots. The price of the application form was Rs100 only.

However, the city government decided to charge Rs500 per form for the second scheme of 120 sq yards plots which is non refundable. If the same number of applications were received for the second scheme, the city government would digest some Rs200 million alone as form price.

“I believe more applications are coming for the second phase of the scheme,” said a bank manager. The final date for submission of forms has been extended by 10 days up to April 30.

The application form for the second scheme is not different from the previous one and the cost of the single-page form must not be more than 50 paisa, while thousands of applicants are downloading the form through the internet thus causing no cost to the government.

For the early scheme of 80 sq. yards of land, four hundred thousands people applied and an amount of R2 billion was deposited with the Allied Bank of Pakistan. However, balloting for the scheme was delayed and the refund of money to the unsuccessful applicants, after balloting in January 2006, is still continuing.

Compared to the previous scheme of 80 sq. yards, more money is expected to come to the banks for the second scheme. Seeing the high response to the scheme, the city government also increased the land price by hundred per cent.

The government charged Rs500 per square yard for the previous scheme, while in the second phase just after six months the land price has been fixed at Rs1,000 per sq. yard. The total cost of the 120 yard plot is Rs120,000.

The scheme has been started to provide houses to the low income people and it is a big relief for them as the land prices have gone beyond the reach of the middle and lower middle class.

Since no criteria was established for filing application for the plots scheme and no restriction was put on the rich people to keep them away from the scheme meant for the low income group, thousands of forms had been submitted by those who do not fall in the category.

A banker said that the Allied Bank would enjoy the benefit of the existing huge liquidity which would come with the application forms and remain there till balloting and even after that.

If the response remains the same as it was in the previous scheme, about Rs6 billion would come into the bank.

“It is not clear how much money of the previous scheme has gone out of the ABL, but people are still coming to withdraw their money after three months,” said the bank manager.

The previous scheme was announced in September 2005, and balloting took place in January 2006, which means that the money deposited with the ABL, remained with the bank even after six months.