Land, real estate should be brought under GST: Sisodia

Land and real estate should be brought within the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime and consumer durables should be taxed at the lowest slab to make the new indirect tax regime consumer friendly, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said today.
The Minister assured industry chambers that he would take up the aforesaid issues in the forthcoming GST Council meeting as keeping land and real estate being outside purview of GST and that higher taxation slab for consumer durables would kill its basic purpose, a PHD Chamber release said.
Addressing a seminar on GST, Sisodia said dual control of GST also defeated its intended objectives and sought more intense consultations on the issue in future course of GST Council, arguing that the objective of the GST should be consumer and traders oriented and it should not entirely aim at raising taxation with higher rates.

"I fought tooth and nail for inclusion of land and real estate within the ambit of GST but somehow there couldn't be an absolute consensus on the issue at number of GST Council Meetings of all the States Finance Ministers because of obvious reasons," Sisodia said.
"Consumer durables such as TV, Mobiles, electric appliances and host of similar such articles should not be taxed luxuriously. That is our view and we will continue to articulate them whenever necessary in the interest of Aam Aadmi though the GST tax rates have yet to be finalized," he said.
CBEC Chairman Najib Shah asked the industry not to keep seeking exemptions under the GST regime as most of such exemptions would go away after it is put in place. The Chairman also clarified that the anti-profiteering clause in GST Law is there as an enabler and industry should not read too much on it, promising that post GST host of indirect taxes would subsume in it making the new law user friendly, the statement said.