Banks must fast-track products for construction industry: EFP

KARACHI: Ismail Suttar, President of Employers Federation of Pakistan (EFP), has on behalf of the investors in construction sector urged Dr Reza Baqir, Governor State Bank of Pakistan to impress upon the banking sector to introduce friendly bank products on war-footing basis to avoid any further delay in availing the incentives in the construction policy.

EFP, which is Apex body of the Manufacturers of Pakistan, wants banks to immediately allocate substantial percent of their portfolio to provide collateral-free mortgage credits without asking about sources of income about projects that need to be financed.

The private sector has pledged an investment of US $1 trillion before the end of the specified period of December 2020 to avail the benefits under the policy. In a statement, EFP has also raised concern that it has been over one month and already 330 cases are in the backlog of Sindh Building Control Authority due to non-implementation of the policy.

He added that the construction industry contributes only 0.5 percent toward the GDP of Pakistan and has hardly got a chance to proliferate due to absence of one-window structure, financing, and lengthy documentation procedures. Hence only around 65,000 builders out of a 220 million population are active in the construction sector.-PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020