The GST Council meeting scheduled to 19th March, Tuesday to form realty rules gets approval from the Election Commission. As the date for Lok Sabha elections has been declared, there were reports that the meeting would violate the Code of Conduct rules.
The GST Council, last month, suggested reducing the levy on under-construction residential projects to 5 percent without an input tax credit from the current 12 percent. In the same meeting on February 24, the Council had decided to lower the GST on the under-construction houses from 12% to 5% and for affordable housing from 8% to 1% without input tax credit (ITC) benefit.
However, on the important issue of transition of the existing under-construction projects, the Council had asked its fitment and the law committee to draft the rules and guidelines for a transition.
The next meeting through video conference on Tuesday is expected to finalize the rules and regulations for the ongoing under-construction residential projects.
In the meeting, the council is likely to limit the usage of tax credits collected by builders and allow a concessional rate for up to 10 percent of commercial property such as shops in residential areas, expecting realtors to reduce prices.
In February, the GST collections has been dropped to Rs. 97,247 crore from Rs. 1.02 lakh crore in the previous month. Out of this, the Central GST was Rs. 17,626 crore, State GST (SGST) stood at Rs. 24,192 crore, Integrated GST Rs. 46,953 crore and cess was Rs. 8,476 crore.
GST collections in the current fiscal till February totalled Rs. 10.70 lakh crore.
