J&K may be first to bring real estate under new regime

SRINAGAR: Jammu & Kashmir may be the first state in the country to bring real estatewithin the ambit of goods and services tax (GST) when it enacts laws to integrate its indirect tax regime with other states, state finance minister Haseeb Drabu indicated. While the Centre and the states had amended the Constitution to move to GST, J&K will have to enact its own laws as it has a special dispensation under the Indian Constitution.

Drabu said he would move the required legislation in J&K assembly to be part of GST and ensure the benefits accrue to the state. The shift is expected to help the state garner around Rs 2,000 crore-worth additional resources to add to its current kitty of around Rs 11,000 crore and expand the tax base by close to 15%.

While the GST Council has agreed to subsume several taxes, including central excise, state VAT, service tax, central sales tax and octroi, it has kept around a third of state revenues outside the GST ambit.

Alcohol, petroleum and real estate are three items on which GST will not be levied.

“We were the first to do many things and we may be the first to include real estate,” Drabu told TOI ahead of the crucial GST Council meeting here. J&K has moved to a January-December financial year, was first to abolish the distinction between plan and non-plan spending and is now working on rolling out universal basic income, something that has been discussed in the latest Economic Survey.

Drabu said his government proposed to enact laws that would allow for levy of integrated GST, central GST and state GST amid indications that audit powers may not be split between the Centre and the state in the same way as it is done in the rest of the country.

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[“source-smallbiztrends”]