33rd GST Council Meeting Key-highlights

33rd GST Council Meeting Overview

The 33rd GST Council Meeting was held through video conferencing on 20th February 2019, headed by the Union Finance minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley. In this meeting, various decisions were made to improve the ease of doing business in India. Let us look at the key highlights of this meeting:

GSTR-3B Due Date Extended

The Government has extended the due date for filing GSTR-3B return by 2 days. Now the GSTR3B for the January month 2019 can be filed till 22nd Feb 2019. This decision was taken to ensure prompt GST return filing compliance taking ease of doing business into consideration.

Moreover, the taxpayer of Jammu and Kashmir can file the GSTR-3B return till 28th February 2019, considering the recent disturbances.

Various Other Decisions are Taken on 24th February 2019

There were various decisions which were postponed for Sunday as many members of the GST Council demanded to be physically present. The decisions which were taken on Sunday are GST on Real Estate, GST on lottery and rationalization of taxes.

GST on Real Estate

Taking "House for All by 2022" into consideration, Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Nitin Patel proposed GST rate cuts on under-construction residential properties to 5% without ITC from the present 12% without completion certificate. He further suggested that GST shall be slashed to 3%, from 8% on the affordable housing segment. The GST council meeting decision with respect to the above was taken on the 24th of February, which is as under

▷ GST Rate

• On construction houses that do not fall under affordable housing properties, 5% GST shall be levied without Input Tax Credit.
• On affordable housing properties, 1% GST shall be levied without ITC.

▷ Effective Date

All these changes shall be applicable from 1st April 2019.

▷ Affordable Housing Property Definition

For the purpose of this decision, affordable houses are those that have a carpet area of 90 Square meters in non-metropolitan cities/town. Moreover, in the case of metropolitan cities or town prescribed carpet is 60 Square meter. However, for both metropolitan and non-metropolitan cities and towns, the value of such house shall not be more than 45 Lakh INR mark.

Benefits of The Decision:

Some of the benefits of this decision are:

• Housing for all at an affordable price as lesser GST rate of 1% or 5% will be applicable.
• Exemption of GST on development rights has also been addressed that will, in turn, helps the real estate sector to tackle cash flow problems.
• For builders, the tax structure and compliance will become more facile.

Other Exemptions (yet to be implemented)

On the development right such as JDA / TDR, lease premium, FSI intermediate tax shall be exempted on such residential property on which GST is payable.

However, this scheme details is yet to be worked out by the officer's committee and a specific council meeting still need to be carried out for the approval.

GST on Lottery

The other matter that has been proposed by Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar is uniform GST rate on Lotteries. As currently, 12% GST rate is applicable on a state-organized lottery and in case the lottery is state-authorized then it attracts 28% GST rate.