Dy chief minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia (PTI Photo) Dy chief minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia (PTI Photo)

The Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has written to finance minister Arun Jaitley, who is also the chairman of GST Council, for the inclusion of real estate in the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST).

While praising Jaitley for piloting the GST negotiations successfully, Sisodia pointed out the “mistake” of keeping the realty sector out of its ambit. He said that by keeping real estate out of GST, the fight against black money would be weakened.

Sisodia also referred to a recent article by chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian in The Indian Express. “Subramanian has given details of possible losses by keeping Real Estate out of GST ambit,” Sisodia said.

“Even today local bodies levy property tax, transactions give us stamp and it doesn’t mean that property tax and stamp duty will be converted to GST. Even today every developer pays 4.5 per cent service tax on work contract. But ready-made commercial or residential property does not come under the service tax. I suggest that keeping real estate out of GST is an attempt to protect black money,” said Sisodia.

📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest Business News, download Indian Express App.