Pakistan plans to ‘get more property tax’

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government has planned to increase taxes on the real estate sector in the 2024-25 budget to be presented today, ARY News reports, citing sources.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led federal government will present its first growth-oriented budget for the financial year 2024-25, with an estimated outlay of over Rs 18 trillion.

According to the proposal, Pakistan plans to get tax on the real estate sector in three slabs.

Sources say that a person who buys a property worth Rs 50 million will have to pay 3% tax, while a person who does not own the property will pay 6% tax.

Properties worth Rs 50 million to Rs 100 million will be taxed at 4% for filers and 12% for non-filers.

In the third slab, a non-filer buying or selling a property worth more than Rs 100 million will be charged 5 per cent tax, while an undeclared person will pay 15 per cent tax.

Read more: Pakistan will present Rs 18 trillion budget today

Real estate recommendations

Pakistani real estate experts have submitted their recommendations on the 2024-25 budget to Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb.

According to real estate expert Ahsan Malik, the industry has suffered huge losses in the last two years. He warned that imposing higher taxes on real estate would result in more investments being withdrawn from Pakistan.

Malik suggested the Pakistan government to reduce DC rates by 33% to reflect the real market value of properties in the 2024-25 budget.

Calls for the abolition of the 3% income tax under Art. 236C on the sale of land.

Malik proposed that in the budget of the coming fiscal year, income tax on the sale of land and apartments in accordance with Art. 236C has been reduced to 1%.

The real estate expert further recommended that tax for non-filers under Section 236-C be reduced from 10.5% to 6%.

Widows who did not declare when purchasing property should be given special tax breaks.