CA Pooja Madhan

The 33rd Meeting of the GST Council was held on 24th February, 2019 at 2 P.M. at New Delhi

First the 33rd meeting of the Council was decided to be held on 20th February, 2019 via video conferencing, however the meeting was adjourned to 24th February, 2019, considering the complexity of the matter such as GST or real estate as the crucial and important matter can not be decided via a video conference.

Also the GST council extended the due date of filing of GSTR-3B for the Month of January, 2019 from 20th February to 22nd February.

The 33rd GST council meeting which was held on 24th February, 2019 was headed by the Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley and it was the first meet of the council after the interim Budget, 2019.

Further the Last GST council meeting i.e 32nd GST Council was held on 10th January, 2019 which was also headed by the Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley.

Now we will discuss the highlights of the 33nd GST Council Meeting:

Rate cut for properties under construction:

The Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley announced a rate cut for the under construction properties in the segment of Residential sector as mentioned below:

  1. GST rate for affordable housing scheme has been reduced from existing 8% to 1% without taking the benefit of the input credit.
  2. The definition of the affordable housing has been provided under the GST law as follows:
  • In case of metro cities flats with a value of Rs. 45 lakhs or less with the carpet area of 60 sq.mtr.
  • In case of non metro cities the flats with a value of Rs. 45 lakhs or less with a carpet area of 90 Sq.mtr.
  1. The GST rate for non affordable housing scheme has been reduced to 5% from existing 12% without taking the benefit of input credit.
  2. The changes will be made applicable from 1st April, 2019
  3. The exemption was proposed on intermediate tax on Transfer Development Rights(TDR)/ Joint Development Agreement(JDA), Long Term Leas Premium, FSI-Press release states for residential properties for which GST is payable.

Out of Discussion Matters

  • There was no discussion made on the rate cut on cement which is currently charged @ 28%.
  • No discussion was made on lottery rate slash.