ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Federation of Realtors Pakistan (FOR) have reached to an agreement on almost all thorny issues. These included reporting procedure of details of transactions on fortnightly basis, inspection procedure and value assessmemt methodology.
FBR issued a handout on Sunday, which said a meeting was held with the real estate associations from all over Pakistan at Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) headquarter (HQ). It said the meeting was presided over by Dr. Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed, chairman FBR and attended by DG DNFBPs Mohammad Iqbal. Ejaz Khan and Sardar Tahir, Chairman and President of the Federation of Realtors Pakistan, and office bearers from the real estate associations from all the provinces participated in the meeting.
The chairman FBR in his opening remarks apprised the participants about the FATF requirements in relation to DNFBPs and stressed upon collective and continued efforts by FBR and Real Estate Agents to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism.
Afterwards, the session was opened for discussion wherein the representatives of real estate sector apprised FBR of their issues and asked questions in relation to implementation of FBR Regulations. DG DNFBPs responded to the questions and informed the participants that FBR would soon issue a shorter version of guidelines and a simplified Customer Due Diligence (CDD) in English and Urdu. The number of questions in the questionnaire will also be reduced as far as possible and made available to the real estate agents in Urdu, he added. DG, DNFBPs further informed that FBR would continue facilitating the DNFBPs for compliance by sending its teams to visit offices of the real estate associations for assistanc.
Speaking to NEWSMAN, Rana Akram, vice president and spokesman FOR, said a group of 120 realtors had attended the meeting with FBR officials and FOR presented its point of view which was well taken by FBR officials. He said FBR has addressed almost all thorny issues like reporting of transactions on fortnightly basis which was creating problems for realtors. He said now onwards, FBR teams will visit offices of realtors to check record keeping. Rana Akram added that FOR has no problem in presenting record keeping to FBR to address concerns of Financial Action Task Force (FATF). He said FOR has also suggested FBR to assess the property value across Pakistan at market rates. He believes that assessment of property on market rates will help Pakistan get out of FATF grey list. Rana Akram dispelled the impression that FBR new guidelines may damage real estate sector of Pakistan .
