ISLAMABAD: The Privatisation Commission will wind up the sale of properties owned by the federal government with the auction of over 41 kanals of land in Lahore on Monday (today).

The land is in the possession of the Republic Motors, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation.

The reserved price of the property located in the highly expensive area of Mall Road, has been fixed at over Rs5 billion, but the commission expects a higher price in view of the prime location of the land.

Privatisation Commission expects a higher price in view of prime location of land

The government had finalised sale of 26 properties and so far has auctioned 23 unutilised properties with proceeds over Rs1bn. The auction of two properties has been deferred due to unfavourable market conditions, for which the Privatisation Commission will float tenders at a later stage, according to an official of the commission.

The commission will submit details of the auctions to the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation for clearance and subsequent submission to the federal cabinet for approval. The 90 per cent of sale proceeds will go for debt retirement and rest of the 10pc will be allocated for poverty alleviation.

The sale of government-owned properties comes under the prime minister’s grand tax relief package for builders and developers that offers immunity to any person from a probe into the source of amount invested up to Dec 31. The package has introduced fixed tax on the income and gains of a builder or developer calculated on the basis of the area of a project.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2020