Centre assures realty sector of revenue neutral GST rate

The Centre has assured that the rate of Goods and Services Tax (GST) would be revenue neutral both for real estate developers and consumers, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) said on Tuesday.

"The government assured us (CREDAI) the GST rate will be revenue neutral. They are coming out with a model which will be revenue neutral for both developers and customers," CREDAI's National President Getamber Anand said here.

"The developers are expected to pay GST equal to what they paid as Vat (value added tax) and excise and consumers will be exempted from state service tax. That is what the government assured us," Anand said.

He said that the biggest concern was that GST treats real estate as a service while Stamp Act is treating it as a fixed asset. The real estate takes hits from both the sides.

"From the consumers' point of view, we were arguing that either the Centre subsume stamp duty in the GST or do not levy GST. Only the stamp duty can be levied," he said.

"The Centre said stamp duty is a state subject so it cannot interfere there," Anand said.

The apex body of private real estate developers also advocated rationalisation of stamp duty across the country.

In terms of providing skills to the construction workers, the industry body has already trained 50,000 workers and is aiming to train one lakh more workers in the next year, he said.

It has opened two off-site training centres in West Bengal.