Bring real estate under GST: Sisodia writes to Jaitley

NEW DELHI: To expand the fight against the black money, the Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has written a letter to the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, urging him to include the real estate sector in the GST.

In the letter to Jaitley, he wrote that if the real estate comes under the new indirect tax regime, exorbitant hike in land prices could be checked and the flow of black money curbed.

Sisodia, who also holds the portfolio of the Finance Minister in Delhi added that he had no hesitation in stating that an extraordinary will power will be required for taking this step.

Being a member of the GST council, the minister urged that in the next GST meeting this agenda should come up. The next GST council meeting is on November 9.

"My view is that if GST is implemented in all steps involved in development of real estate, then every recorded transaction will lead to tax input credit and exorbitant hike in land prices will be checked, entire chain will remain intact and flow of black money in real estate could be curbed," Sisodia said in the letter.

He hoped that the GST council was in a position to take a call on the real estate sector in its next meeting.

Since the implementation of GST in July, the Deputy Chief Minister has been demanding that real estate is brought under it.

Earlier this month, the Sisodia has severely criticised the union government's economic policy.

Taking on the GST implementation, he said, " I thought it was a good idea and supported it but that too proved to be a disaster due to its complicated structure and rollout. A tax slab of 28 per cent will only encourage evasion."

The minister added that the country's economic policy seems to be in the hands of those who do not understand.