Real estate sectoral body CREDAI has urged state governments to do away with the stamp duty on landed property to eliminate multi-point taxation after the introduction of GST.

Trade and industry will, in principle, gain from GST as it eliminates multiple taxation at the state and Centre levels and the consequent cascading effects, it said in a statement. However, while for all other sectors, GST will include the total indirect tax liability, for real estate the rate has been fixed at 12 percent – only a fraction of its tax burden, CREDAI said. This makes the sector an exception, in that GST will not eliminate multiple taxation.

CREDAI Statement

The additional burden on real estate on account of stamp duty averages between 5 to 8 percent of the value of the immovable property.

Secondly, the duty is payable on every transaction and is levied by state governments on circle rates or guideline values of property which are arbitrarily determined and far in excess of the value at which transactions takes place, it said.

Unless abatement for land is allowed, cost to the end consumer would go up.

CREDAI has, therefore, urged the government to minimise double taxation of real estate by treating land as zero rated under the GST regime.

The positive multiplier effect of real estate on other industries would make up the revenue loss and the nation would be thankful for a tax regime consistent with the objective of Housing for All by 2022.