Realty, power may come under GST

By : 360 Realtors

22 December, 2017

The Indian government may widen the scope of GST to include electricity and real estate. According to reports, the Centre and States will discuss including electricity and real estate within GST.

Real estate and electricity are two notable exemptions apart from alcohol and petroleum products, which attract Central and State levies of excise duty, service tax, and value-added tax. Till now states have been keen to protect their revenue base, and have not included real estate India and electricity under the GST tax bracket.

According to reports, the GST Council is discussing the inclusion of GST on real estate and electricity. The committee of officers are examining the proposal and will make a presentation to the GST Council.

The GST Council has also announced compliance provisions for small businesses and lower tax rates for over a 150 items that were in the 28% bracket under GST.

Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI), which is the apex organization representing more than 11,940 real estate developers spread across 23 states and 170 cities, believes that inclusion of real estate India in GST would help in affordable housing as the ‘one country one taxation system’ will benefit the real estate sector and the benefits could be passed on to the consumers. They believe that bringing down GST and registration fees would accelerate growth in the real estate sector in India.

The real estate sector has been facing a number of challenges over the last few years. However, with the current reforms in the sector including Demonetisation, RERA, Benami Property Act, and GST the sector is seeing a turnaround, as the investor confidence is increasing slowly in the Indian market. There is consolidation in the sector and an increased accountability of developers. Over the next few years, the Indian real estate sector will witness a positive trend.