Chandigarh
25 June 2017
DIVYA AZAD
The Construction sector is likely to benefit under GST regime from the availability of input tax credit since presently benefit of input tax paid is not fully available. Benefits arising out of input tax credit on the raw-materials available under the GST regime would result in an overall neutral tax incidence for construction services.”
This was shared at a panel discussion on GST which was held here at a hotel in Sector 35 today. Leading GST Consultants of tricity wherein people from various sectors like IT Companies, exporters, builders, manufacturers, Traders and Service providers participated and cleared their doubts.
Speaking at the seminar Balwinder Singh, GST Consultant, shared his views on GST on the IT companies and Exporters. Exports under GST will be Zero rated i.e. there will not be any exports duty except on items that enjoy an export duty levy currently. Software exports will be zero rated. Under GST all duties and taxes will be payable at the time of a transaction when procuring input goods/service and the exporter can get refund for these after exporting.
90% of the duties paid by exporters shall be refunded within a period of seven days under the GST regime, he said, adding that the remaining 10% refund will be made after verification by tax authorities which s is a big relief to exporters.
Mukesh Gupta,GST Trainer explained the applicability of GST on Construction and Real Estate Developers The composite supply of works contract will fall under the 18% GST rate with full input tax credit (ITC).
Under GST, sale of under-construction real estate properties would be classified as a supply of services and would be liable for payment of GST. However, sale of completed real estate properties and land are exempted. GST rate will be 12% for construction of buildings intended for sale to a buyer, where the value of land is included in the sale value with full input credits.
Currently, excise duty and CST on materials used for construction, cannot be taken as input credit but in GST regime, these can be utilised against output GST liability, which can lower the project cost. Thus, the higher GST rates should get neutralised if the developers pass on the benefit of higher ITC available to them, he said.
CA Gaurav Thapar shared GST mechanism on imports and said that imports will attract basic Customs Duty &IGST. Any supply of goods/services in the course of Import into country shall be deemed to be a supply of goods/services in the course of inter-state trade and IGST will be payable for each transaction.
On import of services GST will be based on reverse charge method just as the Service tax is today i.e. IGST will apply on reverse charge mechanism. Hence, all Software bought online will be subject to reverse charge basis IGST.
CA Kailash Narang cleared doubts of SMEs and said Small traders up to Rs 20 lac turnover are exempted from GST and small businesses with turnover between Rs. 20 to 75 lakhs have option of composition scheme. He explained the registration and filingof GST Returns in detailsThe entire GST process – starting from registration to filing returns and payment of GST tax – is online and businessmen need not to run around to tax offices to get registrations or filing of returns.
He also highlighted the transition process in GSTand said that existing manufacturers/dealers can claim the CENVAT credit in respect of input held in stock, semi-finished or finished goods held in stock subject to fulfilling some conditions.
