Industry reacts

Manoj Gaur, VP, CREDAI National: The GST Council’s decision to reduce GST on affordable housing and under-construction properties is a welcome step for the sector. The recommendations are in sync with the government’s push for ‘housing for all’ and also for the ongoing projects. These steps would surely ease the buying for home seekers, augmenting the demand in all segments.

Pradeep Aggarwal, Chairman, National Council on Affordable Housing, ASSOCHAM: This is a major step towards housing for all. We applaud the reduction in GST to 1% for affordable and to be precise any unit costing less than 45 lakh and smaller than 60 sq. m. in metros and 90 sq. m in non-metros, and a major boost for the middle and neo class segment which make up the masses.

Ankur Dhawan, Chief Investment Officer, PropTiger: The good news is that it not only reduces taxation, but also makes it simpler. Now buyers need not worry about input tax credit and anti-profiteering authority. For developers, it will require re-calculation of pricing if they had assumed certain input tax credit while setting prices post-GST era. Like restaurants, we might see some price increase by developers as well.