Poonam Hotwani (Ex-Employee)

It is expected that the newly implemented Goods and Services Tax (GST) bring down the prices of real estate projects but it has not happened nearly two months since GST was implemented in the country.

It has been two months since Goods and Services Tax Regime (GST) was implemented in the country and comes up with the new headache.

The 28th of August 2017 was the last date for filing GSTR-3B return – for those who want to avail input tax credit on their old stock (of the previous regime) when transitioning to the Goods and Services Tax Regime.

To promote digitization in the country, the Government is planning to provide 2% relief over the applicable GST tax rate in case of making payments through digitization mode, when the is bill up to Rs 2,000. This means an individual will have to pay less amount if the payment is done through digital mode.

Taxpayers have requested the government to permit more time for filing the tax returns, invoices and payments of July month after the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Newly, implemented Goods and Services Tax is ushering some unplanned advantages for the financial institutions or banks. Several Financial Institutions such as ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and DCB Bank, are now providing new services to companies to file their monthly tax returns under the GST by availing bank websites.

The authorities recently clarified that GSTN website that contains a database of GST taxpayers’ information can neither be accessed by the Goods and Service Tax Network nor it can be shared with anybody,

For affordable housings, GST rates on work contracts have been reduced from 18 percent to 12 percent by the government. However, the impact on prices of affordable housing for buyers remains same as earlier, confirmed industry officials that buyers can continue to purchase the finished houses at the predefined GST rate of 12 percent.

In his recent statement to the media, Bijay Kumar, Chief Commissioner of GST, Central Excise and Customs, Kolkata Zone, believes that the recently implemented Goods and Services Tax would bring down the costs of goods, in addition to bringing in transparency to the tax system.