The curious case of import duty for building materials

The most pressing issue in the country is basic housing needs for everyone. While the government has promised social housing and lower housing interest rates, the fact is that it’s still a long way from becoming a reality.

We are used to hearing the disgruntled comments raised by our community almost daily about the exorbitant interest rates provided by the Banks for housing loans in our country.

However, there’s another major issue which goes almost unnoticed. The pricing of building materials, or to be more specific, the import duty for the said materials.

At present, the import duty for building materials (including lifts) average about 20% while the same materials, if imported for building a resort, gets 100% exemption of import duty.

To put this in layman’s terms, a resort is a purely business venture while the vast majority of buildings are residential in nature. Also, resorts usually recover their investment within 6-8 years; for a housing project (either on long-term lease basis or purchase of a flat), it takes over 15 years.

These rates are set in such a way that it gives an unfair advantage to the people who import the materials under resort construction while we, the community, have to deal with the inflated cost price. 

Import duty on building materials needs to be scrapped immediately to ease the burden faced by the homeowners and tenants around the country who wants to build on their land, or lease an affordable flat but can’t because of exorbitant  prices.

Our lawmakers and government needs to seriously think about what is best for the country; a resort project given 100% duty exemption on building materials or extend the same flexibility to  the common folk..