Decision deferred until GoM meeting in Gujarat on Oct 25
PANAJI
Several proposals to tweak existing provisions of the GST regime and provide concessions for the real estate sector in the country failed to find favour as yet with the Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
The Sawant-led GoM was constituted by the GST council earlier this year soon after the Lok Sabha elections to deal with these issues aimed at boosting the country’s real estate sector. It met on Tuesday at the Hilton hotel on the Kadamba plateau, but no consensus was reached on almost every proposal.
One of the issues discussed but deferred for a decision until the GoM’s next meeting scheduled for October 25 in Gujarat was the one to exempt the sector from paying GST on properties taken on long-lease for tourism projects.
The proposal was particularly significant for Goa where many tourism projects are built on land taken on long leases, a top player from the sector said.
The Realtor, who is a member of the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) said, the GoM was expected to clear the proposal for the GST exemption at Tuesday’s meeting and it is “disappointing” that a decision has been deferred.
Apart from Goa, exemption of GST for tourism projects on land taken on long-leases, is also expected to benefit at least a dozen other States.
Another proposal on the agenda of Tuesday’s GoM meeting which Sawant chaired was the exemption of GST sought for redevelopment projects of buildings owned by Cooperative Housing Societies. Here again the GoM refrained from taking any favourable decision citing lack of data from some big States.
The GoM decided that officials of these States work on the data related to buildings owned by Cooperative Housing Societies likely to consider redevelopment and present it at the Gujarat meeting in October for further deliberations.
Similarly, no decision was taken or any consensus reached in the discussions on Tuesday over the proposal for GST sops to houses allotted for free to slum dwellers in redevelopment projects.
The only definite decision taken by the GoM at Tuesday was to reject and dispose off the proposal for total exemption of GST on service costs and premium fees for long-term land leases executed by government institutions.
Resolve input tax credit conundrum: GCCI
PANAJI: The Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has mooted a proposal before the Group of Ministers headed by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to resolve the issue of the construction industry which currently cannot avail input tax credit (ITC) under the GST regime.
GCCI President Shrinivas Dempo, whose Dempo group owns Devashree Constructions which is a major player in Goa’s real estate sector, is said to have formally presented the proposal to the GoM before their Tuesday meeting.
It however could not be confirmed whether the GoM took up the GCCI proposal in its discussions or whether it falls within the scope of its jurisdiction.
A top Commercial Taxes Department official said the issue of the real estate sector being ineligible to claim ITC for GST it pays on cement, steel and other materials, may not be within the scope this GoM’s mandate.
“It may be justified. But the demand for enabling the real estate sector to claim input tax credit on goods and services used by it is for the national council to decide and not this GoM,” the top bureaucrat argued.
The industry claims that allowing ITC for the real estate sector will help reduce property prices and make housing cheaper.
