GST soul of simplicity and transparency: Sunil Lahane

NAGPUR: “Real estate transactions form an essential part of the future Goods and Services Tax (GST) design,” said,
Sunil Lahane, Deputy Commissioner, Sales Tax.
He was speaking in an interactive programme titled ‘GST in construction and housing sector’ organized by the association of Consulting Civil Engineers (India), a professional body of civil engineers, on the occasion of Engineers Day, at Scientific Society Hall, Laxmi Nagar.The other panellists were Dilip Bharade of Raghukul Constructions and CA Lalit Loya.
The panellists said that after reforming initiations like ‘Housing for all’ and ‘Real Estate Regulatory Act (RERA)’, the next thing that real estate sector is looking forward to is the GST. “A homebuyer will have to pay 12% GST to purchase an under-construction house. The existing multiple indirect taxes on the sector are higher and tax impact under GST would be balanced,” the panellists said.
Lahane said, “GST has eliminated interaction between department officials and traders. The only link between the GST department and the tax payers is the GST Network (GSTN). Traders simply need to upload their supply statements on the GST portal and follow the process.”
He added that people have a misconception about filing three GSTR (tax returns) in a month. “GSTR-I is not really a tax return but a statement of outwards supply. Traders need to file only one major return at the end of the fiscal year,” he said.
“Together with RERA, GST will go a long way in ensuring transparency in the realty sector,” said Bharade .
For residential and commercial segment, panellists said, the impact of GST may vary according to the type of project and construction methods as only under construction flats are taxable under GST and input credits on sales of under construction flats are available to set off.
“GST will also help cut cash component in construction as products have to be sourced from registered vendors to get input tax credits. It is important to have a free flow of credit as GST is complete techno driven without any human intervention. With this great reformation of GST, India will soon be a corruption free country,” panellists said.
Shweta Shelgaonkar conducted the programme.