ISLAMABAD: Demanding an amnesty scheme, representatives of the realty sector on Tuesday backtracked from their agreement with the government over enhancing tax rates for sale and purchase of property in the country.

A sub-committee of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance, held its first meeting on Tuesday to discuss numerous complaints filed by real estate agents, property dealers and construction firms.

The sub-committee, headed by Saeed Ahmad Khan Manais was attended by Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD) Chairman Mohsin Shekhani and real estate agents f rom Defence Housing societies in Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi, and Peshawar.

Incidentally,ABADrepresentatives completely rejected the agreement they had signed with the government on July 30, 2016 and presented their own set of proposals.

On the other hand, real estate agents expressed their concerns,claiming their business had completely collapsed and huge chunks of money were flowing out of the country.

They demanded the government introduce a one-time amnesty scheme for the real estate sector along the lines of the one introduced for the stock exchange earlier.

Speaking to the MNAs, realtors said the proposed scheme would net the government an additional Rs1 billion in revenue.

PML-N`s Mian Abdul Mannan expressed his sympathy with the realtors and said that he had discussed the matter with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Adviser to the PM on Revenue Haroon Akhtar.

`We want to save the real estate sector from disaster and giving one-time amnesty is possible, but a joint meeting of the National Assembly and Senate standing committees on Finance will be required for any such scheme,` he added.

On the other hand, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Member Dr Mohammad Iqbal said the real estate sector was already enjoying preferential treatment as far as taxation was concerned.

Dr Iqbal further said that currently,only one federal tax i.e. capital gains tax (CGT), was applicable on the real estate sector, whereas withholding taxes were adjustable.

Those who filed their tax returns could obtain refunds for adjustable withholding tax on property transactions. If a non-filer carrying out transaction in real estate sector becomes a filer, his tax would be reduced by 50 percent, the FBR member said.

The FBR of ficial said the board was working to rectify errors in the FBR`s notified valuation tables for immovable properties.

To a query, the FBR official disclosed that some persons in Faisalabad had obtained loans from banks in the name of textile exports and invested the amount in the real estate sector.

After a month-long exercise, builders, developers and real estate agents had reached a consensus with the FBR, which was even announced by the Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar on July 30, 2016.

The government not only madelegal changes to give the agreement legal cover, but tall claims were made regarding streamlining of the realty sector and enhancing the number of tax filers in this sector.