Real estate may soon come under GST, says Jaitley

Real estate, which does not form a part of Goods and Services Tax, may soon come under its ambit as most of the black money is parked in this sector, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday.Petroleum products, a contentious issue between the Centre and states, however, form part of the GST but the Centre will not impose the tax until all states agree on it, Jaitley said.

“The GST Council has decided to consider the proposal of bringing in real estate into its ambit within one year of its roll out,” Jaitley said, adding the Council found merit in the argument of Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and the Delhi government.

The two have given an extensive presentation before the Council, about the need to tax land and real estate.

“Petroleum products have been included in the Constitutional Amedment Bill. It is a part of the GST. But until all the states and the GST Council agree, we won’t start imposing tax on it,” he said.

“If sometime in the future, the GST Council decides that petroleum products and gas should be taxed under the GST regime, we would not have to go to Parliament for that as the provision has been made already,” Jaitley said in his reply on a debate on Finance Bill.

He said taxation of alcohol too remains with states at present, as it garnered revenue for them. States get their highest VAT revenues from petrol and diesel but once included in GST there will be uniform tax rates all over the country.

The government is expected to table the enabling GST laws in Parliament next week for discussion. The discussion is expected to start from Monday. On concerns about price increase under GST, Jaitley said the commodities which atrracted zero taxation will remain same under the GST regime too.